


New Adventures

by RedFantasies



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe-Gang, F/M, Future Fic, Gang AU, I'll show warnings in the chapter notes, I'm probably forgetting some characters but I've done the ones that are the most important, Nalu - Freeform, OC, Self-Harm, Takes place in the future., but not too much, depressed! Natsu, some violence but nothing graphic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-10-10 18:25:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10444275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedFantasies/pseuds/RedFantasies
Summary: After running away from her life of luxury, Lucy runs into one of Fiore's most feared and powerful gangs. She'll be launched into a new life filled with new people but is that really a bad thing?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is posted on fanfiction.net but this is my first time publishing something on ao3. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Lucy had been dreaming of running away for years. The thing that finally pushed her over the edge happened the day before her seventeenth. Her day had started off normally enough. She had her maid, and one of her only friends, Virgo, wake up and help her get ready the day. After she was ready she headed down to have an awkward, silent breakfast with her father before having lessons with her tutor, Capricorn.

Any other girl in Fiore would have killed for Lucy's life. If Lucy wanted anything she got it immediately. She had money, clothes fit for a princess, tutors, and a sprawling estate that could easily be mistaken for a town. Only a couple of years ago Lucy had loved being here, but that was when her mother was alive. Layla Heartfilia had been seriously ill for two or three years before her sickness claim her life. That was when Lucy's life changed dramatically, and not for the better. The graceful gates that surrounded the estate turned into barbed wire and the wealthy estate, a prison. Lucy's father had become the warden, never letting her leave the property without permission (which he never gave), or when she did leave, it was in an armored car going to meet a potential suitor that her father had arranged for her. Maybe if she wasn't alone her captivity would have been more bearable, but her only friends were the staff that worked at the estate. Some nights, Lucy still cried and mourned the life she had before her mother's death, when Lucy felt loved and well-cared for, not now when she felt like something you could use to trade with at a market. Layla had taught her daughter all there was to know about the stars, their positions, and their stories. Whenever Lucy was feeling particularly sad, she would go into the manicured gardens next to her mother's grave, lie down on the soft grass, and stargaze for hours before eventually falling asleep. The idea that the stars had once been living things that had been pinned up in the night sky made the heiress feel less alone, made her feel comforted.

The rest of her day passed uneventfully, the only thing that could have been considered interesting was when her father called for her to come to his office. A ball of lead coalesced in her stomach and she felt nauseous. Not because she was sick, but because of the fact that this would be another meeting for her father to demand that she go visit a business partner and his son. As Lucy walked down the marble-floored hallway her footsteps echoed throughout the silent hall. Then, more than ever, she realized just how vacated this mansion really was. It was designed to house dozens of people and to entertain hundreds, but the only occupants were her father, the servants, and herself. Once Lucy reached the solid oak door, she gathered her courage and tried to curb her anxiety, and knocked on the door. "Come in," called a gruff voice and the oak door slid open silently at the press of a button from her father.

"You called for me Father?" Lucy asked, not wasting time on pleasantries, they would just have been ignored anyway. She would have taken a seat on one of the leather chairs in front of his large desk but didn't want to seem disrespectful. After a couple of moments of Lucy standing there awkwardly while he looked through papers, Jude Heartfilia cleared his throat.

Jude Heartfilia owned one of the more powerful businesses in Fiore. He held a monopoly on transportation like trains and airplanes. After his wife passed away, work was the only thing on Jude Heartfilia's mind. The only time he ever spent with Lucy was if a marriage could be arranged to help benefit the family company. Based off of that, Lucy assumed that this visit would be about another potential suitor. She would argue back, and if he was angry enough he might even go as far to hit her, which he had done before.

"I received a message from one of my associates from another business," he began and Lucy internally sighed. Here we go, she thought. "He has a son five years older than you that is ready for marriage. If it's agreeable with you, we will visit them tomorrow." A bitter laugh almost escaped the blonde's mouth but she bit her tongue. The fact that he made it seem like she actually had a choice in this matter was laughable. Lucy could lock herself in her room and he would probably bust the door down.

"If I do have a choice in this, then I politely decline. I don't want to marry someone who's older than I am, let alone someone I've never met before." Lucy's indirect challenge to his authority caused a vein to pulse in his forehead. Preparing herself for the inevitable she backed up from where she was standing, planning a route to the door incase she had to escape. Jude stood up so forcefully, his chair flew backwards into the wall and Lucy's heart rate accelerated. In three wide steps he reached where she was standing and mercilessly grabbed her wrist. If it were possible her heart rate skyrocketed and she winced at the pain, knowing a bruise would form by tomorrow.

"Whether you like it or not, you are going tomorrow evening and marriage arrangements will be made by the end of the night. This could be my one chance to expand our business into another region in Ishgar," he growled. "You will not ruin this for me. Now go to your room, I'll have dinner sent up for you." In a last ditch attempt to persuade him Lucy collected her courage.

"Tomorrow is my birthday," she whimpered, her courage failing as tears flooded her brown eyes. The only response was a sharp blow to her face. Trying to quiet the sobs that were wracking her body she ran out of the room and back to her figurative prison cell. That's it, Lucy thought through her tears. I can't be here anymore.

Later that night, 12:30, according to the clock on her nightstand she slipped out of bed and changed into a pair of pants and a long-sleeved shirt that she had incase she decided to go and work in the gardens. Thankfully Lucy had a black cloak with a hood in her closet and she put that on too. After pulling winter boots on her feet she stepped out onto her balcony and debated if she could climb down. Lucy's mind was working fast as she tried to figure out a way to climb down. The sheets and window curtains, she thought. With her triumph she closed her eyes and let the cool night air wash over her. The air smelled fresh and a breeze blew through the air and Lucy felt at peace. She proceeded to yank all of the sheets and blankets off of her bed and tied them together to create a long rope. Just to be safe, Lucy slid the window curtains off of the rod supporting them and added them to her makeshift rope. What she didn't count on was the curtain rod breaking off the wall due to her insistent pulling. A loud clang resonated throughout the room and due to the stillness of the air it seemed a hundred times louder than it actually was. Frozen Lucy waited several moments to see if there would be any pounding footsteps in the hallway that lead to her room. When only silence greeted her, she let out her pent up breath and continued with her work. Back on the balcony, Lucy tied one end of the fabric rope to the metal bars that enclosed the outdoor space. Giving it a firm tug she climbed up onto the railing and wobbled precariously before lifting herself over and slid down the rope. Lucy wasn't surprised that her landing was far from graceful and she fell on her back in the grass. Internally groaning in pain, she picked herself up and ran for the gates.

"Damn it," Lucy whispered as she stared up at the gates before her. "Now what am I supposed to do?" Her eyes wandered around the yard to see if there was anything she could use but her mind drew a blank. "I guess I could try to climb it," she answered herself. Thankfully the wrought-iron gates weren't that high. As soon as she put a hand on it, the gate gave her an electric shock. Impulsively she drew her hand away and swore under her breath. Wait isn't there a keypad to open the gate? If she craned her neck a certain way she saw the keys illuminated in the darkness. I know the password, and if I had a branch I could probably use it to put the code in. Lucy sighed and then set off to find a low-hanging branch she could just snap off of a tree and use. Lucy was successful in her search when she found a short tree near her mother's grave. Looking at the tombstone made Lucy's heart hurt and as a last minute thought she picked some flowers and laid them on the grass in front of the gravestone. "I love you Mama," she whispered. "I know you're supporting me." With that she turned and ran back to the gate, branch in hand. The keypad wasn't far away and it seemed easy enough but Lucy knew if she put the code in wrong three times, the security system would go off. Carefully Lucy entered the code with the branch and thankfully nothing went wrong. The gate silently swung open and she ran out away from her prison to freedom.

Now came the next problem, where was she supposed to go? It's not like she had any friends. With a sigh she continued running until she was well away from the estate and approaching the outskirts of Crocus, the capital of Fiore. During the day, from what Lucy had observed, the capital was filled with flowers, laughter, and people swarming the streets at open-air markets buying food, and of course the flowers. Crocus was famous for its flowers and it attracted a lot of tourists. Now at night, the streets were deserted. Some pubs and taverns were still open and light, laughter, and voices spilled out of the windows and into the silent streets. As much as Lucy would have loved to go into a tavern and get something to eat, she hadn't had the foresight to bring money or anything worth trading with her. Tired and running out of energy she stopped walking and rested against the side of a building. Lucy would have used this time to think but scuffling noises and voices distracted her. Quickly she flattened herself up against the wall and held her breath.

"Is this the place?" a male's voice asked.

"Yeah it is. Lay the explosives at the corners of the building, then we can just get out of here and activate them when we're farther away," another voice instructed. Lucy's heart raced. This had to be one of Fiore's notorious gangs that people knew of but didn't know much about them. Every now and then you would hear something on a news broadcast about how a gang started a shooting or blew up a building. Lucy was frozen, if she wanted to move she couldn't. If she moved she probably would be caught. It was even more dangerous because she didn't know what group this was.

"Gajeel is something wrong?" the voice that was giving instructions asked. Lucy's eyes widened. Gajeel was a member of Fairy Tail, the most powerful gang in Fiore.

"You don't smell anything off Salamander?" Lucy knew she was dead. Salamander was Natsu Dragneel's nickname and he was Fairy Tail's they couldn't smell her…could they?

"No, there's someone here." A sharp crack pierced the air and a "what the hell was that for?" in response.

"Idiot! I thought you told me the area was clear!" Salamander yelled.

"I did, don't blame this on me," Gajeel argued back. "Fine, I'll go find this person." Running would have been the safest option at this point but Lucy was shaking so much she couldn't move. From what she understood, Fairy Tail only killed people who either made them angry, posed a threat, or was just problematic whether it was just for them or for the whole of Fiore. Maybe she would be safe, maybe. Lucy's eyes were squeezed shut but she had the feeling that eyes were on her. Very slowly she opened them and saw a bulky figure with red eyes peering at her curiously. "Found her Salamander."

"No don't take the explosives away! We won't get this chance again! Don't give me that look Ice Princess!" Salamander yelled before making his way over to where Gajeel and I were standing. The figure that was approaching them seemed to flick something on a lamppost and suddenly there was light. Lucy noticed that the gang leader had dark eyes and the pink hair that he was well known for. His trademark scaly scarf was around his neck and he peered at Lucy curiously. "Gajeel go away, you're scaring her."

"How am I doing that?" Gajeel protested.

"Because you look terrifying and your creepy red eyes don't help at all," Natsu reasoned. "Now go make sure that they don't screw up please." Grumbling under his breath, Gajeel left Lucy and Natsu alone on the street corner. "Would you mind telling me your name?"

"Lucy," the blonde whispered refusing to make eye contact. His eyebrows drew together.

"You're not going to tell me your last name are you?" Natsu asked softly and Lucy shook her head. "Can you at least take the hood off?" With trembling hands Lucy pushed the black fabric off of her head and waited for the pinkette to recognize her as the Heartfilia heiress. "You're Lucy Heartfilia right?" Natsu pressed through gritted teeth. Once Lucy gave a small nod Natsu continued his interrogation. "What are you doing here? I swear if your dad sent you here as a trap I'll kill him."

"Why would he set a trap?" Lucy questioned nervously. "He's never had any contact with Fairy Tail before, not that I know of anyway."

The pinkette's mind was whirling. Jude Heartfilia's daughter was standing in front of him trembling from fear, and apparently she had no idea that her father was tangled in Fiore's gang system? "How much do you know about his work?" Natsu asked, as he began to relax. She might not pose as much of a threat as he initially thought.

"Nothing I swear! He doesn't tell me anything, unless there's a potential suitor," the Heartfilia heiress replied bitterly.

"What are you doing all the way out here?" Natsu continued his interrogation but now his voice was less harsh and Lucy slowly began to feel less threatened.

"I ran away from home," Lucy told him, "I couldn't take being there anymore."

"What happened to your cheek?" Natsu shot out another question and Lucy instinctively put her hand to cover the left side of her face. Natsu frowned and gently grabbed the blonde's hand and pulled it away from her face. With his other hand he turned her face towards the light only to see a purple bruise. "How did you bruise it?" The question came out more tender and concerned than Lucy would have thought. Natsu's mind was working quickly, trying to put together all the pieces of the information that Lucy had given him. Obviously she and her father weren't on good terms but, Natsu hoped that even Jude Heartfilia had some decency to treat his only living immediate family well.

"My father hit me for not wanting to meet a suitor," Lucy whimpered and she felt tears come to her eyes. Natsu started to freak out, if there was one thing he hated dealing with, it was crying girls.

"Don't cry, you don't have to go back there if you don't want to," he quickly reassured her and she looked at him with wide, tearful brown eyes. A pang went through Natsu's heart and he felt bad for her. Yes his father had disappeared a couple of years ago, but he and Natsu had an amazing relationship. The fact that there were innocent people like Lucy being hurt for no reason made him angry.

"Really? You mean that?" she sounded hopeful and Natsu smiled.

"I mean, I can't let you go regardless because the last thing I need is someone finding out that you met me. That would bring a lot of trouble that I really don't want to deal with. And besides, I can't let you go back to an abusive father. I always knew Jude was an asshole but I thought he'd be above abusing his only family at the most. Anyway you didn't have any plans did you?"

"No I didn't. I wasn't thinking about that when I escaped," Lucy admitted.

"You're going to have to tell me how you did that, I'd love to hear that story. But you're coming with us." He stretched out his hand and Lucy grabbed it tentatively. "Guys get in the car! When we're ten minutes away activate the explosives." And just like that Lucy was forced to accept her new reality. Was she captured? Or was this a blessing in disguise? She wasn't entirely sure. At that moment Lucy was trying to combine what she had heard about the infamous Natsu Dragneel on the news with the person she had just met. Maybe he was a gang leader, but he seemed so angry at the fact that Lucy had been abused, even if it was just a little bit, that she couldn't help but think that he was, at heart, a good person.

"Where'd the girl come from? Did you find a girlfriend Flame Brain?" a teenage boy around Lucy's age teased.

"Shut the fuck up Gray, I'll tell you about it later. Right now just get us home," he ordered. "Go to sleep Lucy, it'll be a couple of hours." Lucy didn't need encouragement. She rested her head against the plush leather interior and drifted off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Back with another chapter! I made some small adjustments to the original story but nothing major changed. I'll try to update as often as I can.

When Lucy regained consciousness, she tried desperately to go back to sleep. _Today I have to go to the meeting with that suitor. I could always try locking myself up in my room again, but that won’t work. It never does._ Then all of the memories from the previous night came flooding back.

Her last memory was Natsu telling her to go to sleep and falling asleep on a leather seat in a car. All of the anxiety she had had the night before came back but so came waves of relief. She would never go back to the estate, Natsu had implied as much last night. But now the blonde was nervous about what the leader of Fairy Tail would do now. It hadn’t seemed like he wanted to hurt her, but that could have been an act.

Finally she forced her eyes open and was surprised to find herself lying in a large bed with a simple light blue blanket. White window curtains were pulled back to reveal a large window that showed the tops of trees. _This must be Natsu’s house_ , Lucy thought, her mind still drowsy from sleep. A soft _whoosh_ noise filled the room and Lucy looked towards the door. To her surprise a blue cat walked in and seemed to make eye contact with her. “Oh good you’re awake.” _Did the cat just talk?_ Lucy asked herself. _No, that’s impossible_. “What have you not seen a talking cat before?”

“No, I can’t say that I have,” Lucy managed to say through her surprise and shock.

“That’s so weird,” the cat teased. “Natsu told me to take you to his office. He’s been waiting for you to wake up all morning.”

“What time is it?” Lucy yawned and looked around for a clock.

“Oh there aren’t any clocks. Instead there’s some sort of panel in the night table that can do a holographic display of a clock.” Lucy’s brown eyes widened, she had thought those were only prototypes. Her father had holographic displays but not that many. Curiosity getting the better of her, she tapped the top of the nightstand and was greeted with a blue interactive holographic display. She pressed the word ‘clock’ and saw the display change into the time.

“It’s 10:00?” Lucy gasped and she smiled to herself. “I never got to sleep in this late.” She laughed as the blue cat stared at her oddly.

“C’mon, Natsu’s not known for his patience,” the blue cat said and Lucy trailed after him. The talking cat led Lucy down a hallway that had glass siding and Lucy gasped when she saw the rest of the house. The furniture that she did see was sleek and obviously incredibly modern, such a difference from the estate she had grown up on. The walls were all glass and they offered a view of the incredible backyard. Beyond the bright green grass was a swimming pool with water that appeared a dark shade of turquoise due to the shade of the trees.

“This is incredible,” Lucy breathed as she followed the cat down the hall. They stopped in front of a dark brown door and the wonder that Lucy had been filled with vanished and was replaced with nerves.

“Natsu, we’re here!” The brown door silently swung open.

“You can come in little buddy. Good morning Lucy,” Natsu said. Lucy’s first impression was that Natsu clearly didn’t put emphasis on appearing serious. He had a red V-neck, cargo shorts and his feet were propped up on his white, minimalistic desk. Like her father’s office, Natsu had two chairs in front of his desk but these looked far more comfortable. Both of the walls were white and had various images, maps, and newsfeeds covering the surface. All the information was constantly changing and Lucy had to wonder how Natsu kept track of it all. The wall behind the desk was all glass allowing more sunlight to stream in through the windows. “You don’t have to keep standing you know,” Natsu told his guest with an amused, arched eyebrow. Lucy flushed and sat down.

“Sorry, old habits die hard,” she apologized keeping her head lowered. She heard Natsu sigh.

“Happy, can you go bring the stuff up for breakfast? Sorry to make you work little buddy but Kinana and Mira left last night and aren’t coming today.”

“Aye sir!” the blue cat, Happy Lucy figured, exclaimed and grew white wings and zoomed through the air and out the door.

“He can fly?” Lucy asked incredulously. Natsu laughed at her expression.

“Yeah, he was genetically engineered to. All my cousins have cats just like him, we call them Exceeds.” He cleared his throat and put his hands behind his head. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, thank you. I haven’t slept in this late before. Or I mean I have, just not since I was little,” Lucy amended quickly, still looking anywhere but Natsu’s sharp, dark eyes.

“You don’t need to be so afraid of me you know,” he informed her. “You should consider yourself lucky, if it had been one of our enemy gangs you’d be in a considerably worse position. I like to think that I’ve treated you well, considering you’re a Heartfilia and Fairy Tail generally has a grudge against your family, not your whole family though, just your father. I’d only hurt you if you gave me a reason to.” At the last words Lucy’s head snapped up and she eyed the pinkette warily. Normally her opinion never mattered to anyone and she learned the hard way that it was easier to keep your thoughts to yourself. While the Salamander’s words weren’t exactly reassuring, he hadn’t hurt her yet.

“I have the food!” Happy announced as he placed a plate with muffins, fruit, and a pitcher of juice onto the desk. “Can I stay with you Natsu?”

“Sure little buddy,” Natsu agreed and Happy cheered. The blue talking cat flew up on Natsu’s head and curled up in his mess of pink hair. “Lucy, you can take the food. If there’s one thing you should know, I’m normally pretty relaxed and not formal in the slightest.” Lucy nodded and reached out and grabbed a muffin and poured herself some juice.

“Thank you, you’ve been incredibly generous,” Lucy thanked her host softly. A small half-smile appeared on Natsu’s face. He was genuinely glad that Lucy was at least talking. From what he knew about Jude Heartfilia from observations, interactions, and spies, one of them being Loke who was actually a member of Fairy Tail, Jude Heartfilia was stiff, formal, single-minded, and cold. Of course his daughter would be quiet and shy. She had probably been oppressed since her mother had passed away. Natsu’s jaw tensed involuntarily at his thoughts. He chuckled softly at her words of gratitude.

“I’m glad you like it. Lucy, would you mind if I asked you some questions?” Natsu ventured tentatively. He would have to be careful, he didn’t want Lucy to close up, quite the opposite. Immediately her brown eyes became guarded and she regarded him with emotionless eyes.

“I’m going to go now,” Happy excused himself and slipped out the door.

“What kind of questions?” she replied. Natsu had spent his entire life dealing with people and he had become adept at reading body language. Even though Lucy probably believed she was emotionless, and Natsu had to give her credit for allowing such little emotion to show, Natsu could tell from her tense shoulders, alert eyes, and clenched jaw that she wasn’t going to give answers willingly.

“Just information about your father. It doesn’t have to be anything specific, I mean I have spies but I just want to see if they missed anything,” Natsu said casually. Lucy was on high alert. Natsu had implied that he and her father weren’t friendly with each other and while she wanted to find out more about what made her father and Natsu hate each other she wasn’t willing to give information.

“How about we play a game?” Lucy suggested and Natsu gave an exasperated sigh.

“And what do you suggest Princess?” he asked sarcastically and Lucy was quietly seething in frustration. If Natsu was trying to provoke her into coming out of her shell it was working.

“I have to ask you questions too, and you have to answer honestly,” she ordered and the look in her eyes let Natsu knew that she wasn’t going to budge on this. “And your questions have to be a lot more specific.” Natsu groaned and looked at one of the white walls.

“We have to go to Fairy Tail soon, so we’ll make this fast. I’ll do the first question. What did your father do to make you run away and how did you get away?” Lucy sighed and willed herself to stay strong.

“That’s more than one question,” she accused and her eyes narrowed. Natsu’s dark eyes were filled with mirth and mischievous laughter.

“Consider it an elaboration,” he countered and Lucy could hear the laughing in his voice. Involuntarily Lucy laughed softly. She didn’t remember the last time she had genuinely laughed.

“Well as I said last night, my father wasn’t exactly kind and loving; the only time he paid attention to me was when a marriage opportunity came up to expand his business. Yesterday was the last straw. He said he would basically force me to go with him to meet this future fiancé of mine. I didn’t want to go and I tried to argue by saying,” Lucy trailed off at what she had argued with. She was seventeen today, her birthday would probably pass uneventfully as always.

“By saying what Lucy?” Natsu urged. The gang leader figured that this was Lucy’s first time to really have a real conversation and he didn’t want to end quickly. “Lucy what did you say?”

“I said that today was my birthday,” the blonde said softly and Natsu looked at her in astonishment. Was her birthday never celebrated? That had to be it. And for the second time since they had met only eight or nine hours ago he felt a pang of sympathy go through his heart. The pinkette felt so bad for her. He had been that lonely once, after his father disappeared and Natsu had nowhere to go. The whole mansion and millions of jewels were his and he had no one to share it with. Then he and his cousins, Gajeel and Wendy for their father and mother respectively, had disappeared too, stumbled their way into Fairy Tail. But before that he had been truly lonely. Gajeel and Wendy lived in different houses and they were more than a half-hour drive away. Their cousins Sting and Rogue were even farther away; it was a three-hour drive to get to their house. Another stroke of luck was when a nine-year-old girl had strayed onto his mansion grounds with nothing but her name and the clothes she was wearing. Evelyn had been living with him before she had been kidnapped. Natsu knew what Lucy was going through, he knew it too well. But luckily his loneliness had gone away after a couple of months; he couldn’t fathom feeling that way for years.

“Why didn’t you tell us? When we get to Fairy Tail we’re celebrating. You haven’t celebrated your birthday in a while have you?” The question was pointless but Lucy answered anyway.

“Not since the year my mother died. Father never cared and he never made any time for me. The cooks we had would make me small cakes and I would get clothes from others but it felt meaningless.” While she was talking Natsu walked up to one of the white walls and dragged some videos and news feeds out of the way. After tapping the options on the wall quickly he typed something into it and hit a send button.

“There, that’ll be arriving at headquarters soon. Mira or Kinana will see it and they’ll make a cake for you!” Natsu explained and his childlike enthusiasm was contagious.

“Anyway, my father slapped me and I ran back up to my room. I escaped by making a rope out of blankets, sheets, and window curtains to climb out of my room. I might have pulled the curtain rod out of the wall though,” she admitted. Natsu blinked dubiously at her before bursting out in laughter. Her new friend, at least she thought he was, was bent over in his chair, holding his stomach, and laughing until tears came down his face.

“That’s great!” he crowed, flicking the tears off of his cheeks. “You’ll fit right in with Fairy Tail.”

“Who says I’m going to join Fairy Tail?” Lucy argued and Natsu’s gaze became less humorous.

“I’m not really giving you much of a choice Princess. It’s either become a member or we’ll have to take more extreme actions.” The chill in his voice made Lucy positive that the extreme actions he was talking about were less than favorable. He was right, Natsu had planned this out, she was sure of it. Not that she was complaining that much, but he had her backed in a corner. Lucy came to the conclusion that the only real option she had was to join the gang and she had to ask herself if that would be such a bad thing.

“Fine, I’ll join,” she muttered.

“Good! You’ll learn to love it eventually, I promise,” he gave her a brilliant grin. “Now continue your story!” Lucy had to smother laughter at how her now fellow gang member’s personality went from that of a cold adult to an innocent child.

“So after I climbed out of my room I had to get past the gates so I grabbed a branch and put the code into the keypad that was outside of the gate. And after that I ran and eventually found you.” Natsu was impressed. For not having any outside experience he knew that she was going to become a valuable member of Fairy Tail. They always needed people that were resourceful and clever like that.

“I’m impressed Princess,” he complimented her with a smirk gracing his face. “I’m guessing you’re pretty smart then.” Natsu could have sworn that her cheeks turned a slight shade of pink.

“My turn,” Lucy stated distracting Natsu from his thoughts. “What were you doing last night?” Natsu groaned and pondered the best way to explain this to her without letting her know directly that her father was involved in the complicated gang system in Fiore.

“It was a warehouse of a gang that screwed us over,” he answered vaguely. Lucy was far from satisfied with that answer but she knew Natsu wouldn’t budge. Once more, he glanced at one of the white walls and swore at something he saw. “Goddamn it Freezer Burn, can you do anything right?” he yelled at the interactive surface. “We’re going to have to cut this short because this idiot fucked these negotiations up.” He took a deep breath to regain his temper and faced Lucy. “Any last minute questions?” Lucy bit her lip. She knew the question she wanted to ask but she was afraid. “You want to ask something, go ahead and ask it. Whatever it is I swear that I won’t get angry.”

“Are we friends?” Lucy whispered to the quiet room and Natsu looked at her with a teasing glint in his dark eyes. Lucy noticed that they looked green with the angle of the light entering the room.

“We can be,” was all he answered and Lucy gave a half-smile. _Good enough_ , she thought.

“Come on then! You have to meet everyone and Mirajane should have that cake ready by the time we get there!” Lucy followed him out of the room. “Happy we’re going to Fairy Tail!” Natsu shouted and a blur of blue fur flew around the corner.

“I want to go too!” the cat cried and Natsu chuckled. “I want to try giving Charle another fish today.”

“And Charle is?” Lucy asked nervously, intruding on the conversation.

“Charle is Wendy’s, my little cousin’s, Exceed. Happy is in love with her.” As they went down the stairs and onto the first floor Lucy gasped in shock at how truly amazing this house was. The backyard was large and spacious and was that an outdoor kitchen? Natsu stopped in front of a door and leaned down for an eye scan. The pad flashed green and the door slid open.

“You have three cars?” Lucy asked incredulously. “Isn’t that a bit excessive?”

“The blue and silver are backups. This one is the one I use the most,” he explained nodding his head towards a red sports car with a black Fairy Tail symbol painted onto the door.

“Isn’t a bad idea to have the symbol on the car?”

“Yeah, but there’s a mechanism that makes it disappear. And besides, the metal and glass are bulletproof and the tires are filled with rubber so we can’t get a flat.” He opened the passenger seat and gave an exaggerated bow; Happy jumped in after. Natsu slid into the driver’s seat and tapped a panel where the controls like air conditioning and radio should have been. After typing in some words he pressed a button and a map appeared on the panel.

“Is this the route you want to take?” an automated female voice asked. The pinkette gave the map a glance before hitting the steering wheel in frustration.

“What the hell? Why does this always happen?” Natsu fumed. Lucy craned her neck to look at what Natsu was angry about. “This GPS always gives me the most convoluted routes possible. Or they’re just going in the opposite direction.” He began the process of entering the destination again. “Best piece of technology, yeah right. Makarov was drunk when he said that, this thing is a piece of shit,” he muttered bitterly. “I want a refund.”

“Who’s Makarov?” the blonde asked, hoping she wasn’t too annoying with her question asking.

“He was the leader of Fairy Tail before me, now he’s just kind of like an advisor. Makarov supposedly gets us the best technology ever, which I’m seriously starting to doubt.” Lucy giggled at his frustration and impatience. He whooped when the right map showed up and he hit a large button that said drive. He made small talk the whole way, but only half of his mind was actually on the conversation he was participating in. Lucy was smart, the story of how she ran away from home proved that. Natsu felt his lips twitch in a small smile. Aside from how valuable she would be once she started training in fighting, Lucy also knew about dealing with large corporations, like her father’s for example. No doubt she had connections that could be valuable to him, if he played his cards right that is. Even better was the fact that Jude Heartfilia wouldn’t do that much to oppose them if he knew that his daughter’s life was in the balance. Not that he would really give her back anyway, he guaranteed that she would fall in love with Fairy Tail and want to stay. And besides, he may be a gang lord but the idea of mistreating family or friends went against his moral code. If Jude Heartfilia did attempt to get his daughter back, Lucy had the four most powerful gangs in Fiore protecting her.

In Natsu’s mind the Heartfilia family had too much power and Jude had been attempting to expand his businesses by trying to takeover Fairy Tail and their allies. _As if he doesn’t have enough power already_ , Natsu thought bitterly. Aside from being power-hungry, Jude Heartfilia also became allies with the Balam Alliance, which contained the most powerful, corrupt people that Natsu had ever seen. They had been attempting for years to try and takeover the entire country, which was actually easier than one might think due to their various spies and double agents in the Council already. On top of that, Natsu was unsure if it was the Balam Alliance or Jude himself, but somebody had kidnapped his adopted little sister from under his nose and he hadn’t seen her in a year. The idea of questioning Lucy about her was tempting, but Natsu knew he wouldn’t get anywhere. It was clear Lucy knew nothing of her father’s work so his spirits were lowered yet again as a potential lead ran dry.

When they arrived at the Fairy Tail headquarters Lucy was surprised that it was a contemporary skyscraper made out of dark glass and metal. For the most part, the ride to Fairy Tail was incredibly enjoyable for the blonde. She and Natsu had talked about random, everyday things from music and movies to what places they wanted to travel to, all the while being oblivious to all of the plans swirling around in her companion’s head. Natsu had cracked a joke right before he gave his car off to the building valet. Lucy was laughing while Natsu pulled her into the elevator. Before he could press a button however he had to have another eye scan.

“We found that eye scans were far more safe than cards or fingerprints,” Natsu explained. “We’ll need to get your eye scanned into the system. I’ll have Levy do that with you, you’ll like her. You’re both bookworms.” When the elevator dinged they exited onto a wooden floor that opened to a large, open room. The left wall was similar to the walls in Natsu’s office. Images, video clips, newsfeeds, and lines of HTML were constantly changing.

“Why are their HTML codes on the wall?” Lucy asked as she followed Natsu.

“Oh those are codes in case we ever need to hack something,” he answered casually as if it was something that you could bring up in any conversation. “Hey guys we have a new person!” Everybody’s eyes were on them and Lucy felt her face flush from the attention and she moved slightly behind Natsu. “C’mon Luce don’t be shy!” He grabbed her wrist and dragged her from behind him. “This is Lucy!”

“Isn’t she a Heartfilia?” someone called and Natsu glared in the man’s direction and his jaw tightened with frustration and he sighed. Natsu knew that he was referring to Evelyn. That had been a hit they hadn’t been expecting.

“Cool it Jet, it’s not like I had much of a choice. She saw us while we were working on our raid. And I think Lucy will cooperate with us. Besides she ran away from home and I couldn’t let her wander around all alone, she would’ve been taken by a far worse gang than ours. Does anybody want to argue this with me?” Natsu asked in a deadly calm voice, as if daring someone to make a move against him. “Yo Mira!” he called and a girl with long white hair and bright blue eyes looked up at him from behind a bar counter.

“Hi Natsu, I got your message. Kinana is getting the cake now,” she informed him and Natsu gave a satisfied nod.

“Good, Lucy go hang out with Mira and I’ll have Levy come over so you can start making friends. I need to go deal with Frost Bite and the mess he got himself into.” Before he could make a move a ringing noise came from the interactive white wall and a video camera icon was flashing. Natsu sighed and slid the icon to the right. “How badly did you screw up?” Natsu asked immediately.

“Not terribly, but they want to be the first ones to have those thermal detectors that we’re working on.” Lucy recognized the teen speaking was the one that Natsu had called Gray the night before.

What do we know about these people?” Natsu questioned rubbing his forehead with one hand.

“Well they work under Grimoire Heart, but these guys are pretty low in their hierarchy, so that’s not a problem.”

“Except for the fact that said detectors would be going straight to Grimoire Heart,” Natsu objected which Gray ignored.

“However Hibiki, you know from Blue Pegasus, said that they’re also working on a deal with Jude Heartfilia and information from Hibiki is normally pretty reliable,” Gray continued. At the mention of Lucy’s father, the blonde’s head jerked up. Her father was part of the gang system? How could she not have known? That’s why Natsu didn’t want her going back home, well being aside. The thought should have made her angry, that Natsu’s intentions weren’t completely selfless but she had been treated so well that it couldn’t bother her. Not that much anyway.

“Knock them out and lock them up, we’ll have to question them and I don’t want them to go running back to either Grimoire Heart or Jude Heartfilia with whatever information they’re gathering. And take whatever recording devices they have, or any technology in general, away and give it to Freed or Levy.”

“Is there anything else we could do?” Gray questioned and Natsu scowled.

“Do you want to kill them or have them interrogated?” the pinkette snapped and that shut Gray up.

“So that wasn’t entirely screwed up,” a girl with long brown hair and a beer bottle in her hand observed.

“We don’t know how much stuff has been transmitted though Cana,” Natsu grimaced.

“Wait Natsu?” Lucy spoke up bravely and rose from her seat. The gang leader simply arched an eyebrow in response, his charcoal gray eyes looking at her intently. “What does my father have to do with any of this?”

“I’ll tell you later,” was all he said before declaring that Lucy’s birthday celebration would take place that night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I'm on spring break, I'll try to update more frequently on here. The whole story is updated on fanfic (i have the same username). Anyway this one involves using electric shocks and memory wiping in an interrogation so if that bothers you I'll put asterisks marking it.

**********

Natsu’s patience with the guys that worked with Grimoire Heart was running thin. He had spent twenty minutes working on the one who seemed to be the person in charge of the group of five that had visited. He was hooked up to electrodes that monitored heart rate and had more electrodes on his head that showed brain waves as ways to tell if he was lying at all. In addition he had electrodes that could produce an electric shock that differed in intensity and length depending on what Natsu wanted. Gray was in the room with them and was analyzing the information that the electrodes were recording. The ones that delivered an electric shock didn’t actually cause electrocution, but it was a damn good simulator.

“I’m not telling you anything Salamander,” the man said with a satisfied smile on his face. Hissing in frustration Natsu turned the voltage up a notch higher and set the duration for ten seconds instead of five. This time there was an audible buzz and the man; he had said his name was Trevor Sentel, winced.

“It’s in your best interests if you do pal,” Natsu growled. “What does Grimoire Heart need the detectors for?” The snicker in response made the pinkette want to rip his hair out. He had half a mind to just pour truth serum down this guy’s throat. As retaliation Natsu turned the voltage up by five more notches, making it the equivalent of getting strongly electrocuted. “Are you willing to talk now? Otherwise I swear I’ll turn this voltage up so much you’ll get knocked out.” At the threat Trevor seemed to sober up and realize that he might actually be in danger. _Took him long enough_ , Natsu thought.

“Ok, ok I’ll talk,” their captive relented and Natsu gave a patronizing smile.

“Good. Now, what do you need the detectors for?” Natsu repeated the question he had been asking this person for the past twenty minutes. “What is Grimoire Heart planning?”

“This actually didn’t come from Grimoire Heart,” Trevor confessed with a gleeful tone. Both Natsu and Gray’s eyes narrowed and they shared a glance.

“Seems like Hibiki was right,” Gray commented. “Did this come from Jude Heartfilia?”

“Didn’t come from anyone else.” The whole situation struck Natsu as odd. Detectors and security weren’t normally what Jude Heartfilia dealt with. Most of the time he was after weapons for attempting to take over businesses by force. Lots and lots of force.

“And what does he need this for?” Natsu said through gritted teeth.

“How would I know? I’m just told orders, I don’t know his plans!” Trevor defended himself from the question. When Natsu arched an eyebrow the man resumed pleading. “Honestly, I don’t know what he’s planning on doing! None of the others that I have with me know either I swear!”

“His brain waves and heart rate say he isn’t lying, and you can’t fake brain waves,” Gray commented and Natsu released his breath with a hiss.

“Tell me this then. Have you heard anything about a girl named Evelyn?” This was the last question Natsu had to ask, if he didn’t he would have felt guilty.

“I’ve heard the name somewhere before,” Trevor said slowly, “I forgot where though.” Natsu slammed his hand down on the table in frustration. He jumped up from his chair and leaned over their captive menacingly.

“Would you like some incentive to remember?” Natsu growled. The man shook his head and Natsu took a deep breath to keep from killing this guy on the spot. “Gray, give him some of that memory remover medicine that we have. Give him just enough to erase the past couple of hours. When that’s done grab another one.” Gray nodded once and walked the man out of the room. Trevor was pleading and begging but Natsu wasn’t hearing it. He didn’t enjoy wiping people’s memories or being cruel to them in general, but if it came between one person and the safety of Fairy Tail, his family, he would do it.

*******************

While Natsu and Gray were dealing with their captives, Lucy was becoming fast friends with a lot of the girls in Fairy Tail. She had happily been chattering with Levy about books and Mirajane, along with her little sister Lisanna, were telling Lucy about everybody currently in the room. The blonde had been learning a lot, but nothing about what Fairy Tail actually was or what they did. Every time she tried to steer the conversation in that direction, Mirajane or Lisanna would start talking about another person or Levy would mention a book that had just been published. _If they’re not going to tell me, I just might have to find out myself._ “Levy, Natsu said that you could get my eyes scanned into the security system. Can we do that now?”

“Of course! While I get the technology set up, Mira would you mind giving Lucy her Fairy Tail mark now?”

“That’s a good idea,” Mirajane agreed as the bluenette hopped off the barstool and got in the elevator. Mirajane rummaged for something behind the bar for something before straightening back up. “What color ink do you want?”

“Is this like a tattoo?” Lucy inquired nervously.

“In theory, yes; but it’s painless,” Lisanna explained, putting some of the blonde’s nerves at ease. She would go along with the idea, it’s not like there was anything else she could do, but the idea of being marked permanently didn’t sit well. In Lucy’s mind, getting a mark of a gang was like taking an oath that you could never break. Natsu hadn’t been kidding when she said that she was going to join Fairy Tail; the mark that she was about to get meant that she could never leave, _ever_. But then, did she really want to? She didn’t have anywhere else to go, but even if she could go back home, would she? Would she want to go back to a somewhat abusive father who didn’t care for her? Lucy was positive Natsu had ulterior motives for having her join, but he had treated her well, despite the fact that they’d only known each other for less than 24 hours, he had a birthday cake made for her. However, that didn’t mean she wasn’t suspicious and wary.

“Um, I’ll have pink,” Lucy responded.

“Where do you want it?”

“My right hand, I guess,” the blonde decided.

“Awesome, you’re officially a Fairy Tail member now!” Mira announced. “Do you want to have a piece of cake?” Lucy nodded and a thick slice of chocolate cake was put in front of her.

“We should be glad that Erza’s not here,” Lisanna giggled. “She would’ve gone on a rampage because the cake wasn’t strawberry.”

“And Erza is?” Lucy asked after swallowing a bite of chocolate cake.

“She’s probably the strongest female in Fairy Tail and she has an unhealthy obsession with strawberry cake. She can even beat Natsu in a fight. He won’t admit that though,” Mirajane confided. “Don’t tell him I said that.”

“Ok I won’t,” Lucy laughed.

“Are you ready Lucy? This won’t take long,” Levy called from across the room. Lucy nodded and got up from her seat.

“Can you make sure nobody eats this?” Lucy requested to the two sisters she was sitting with.

“You can count on us,” Lisanna gave her a thumbs up and Lucy smiled and waved goodbye.

“Ok I’m ready to go,” Lucy told her new, short friend. “So what do you do here?”

Levy pressed the button for a floor towards the top of the building. “I do a lot of research and create prototypes. Freed mostly works with the technology, you know hacking and things like that, but sometimes he and I work together.”

“What do you research?” Lucy asked, genuinely curious.

“Mostly ways to improve existing technology and coming up with weapon concepts and designs. Right now I’m beta-testing a thermal imaging device that Natsu wanted developed. He’s planning on using it for building infiltration. This one is different than most because it can see _through_ buildings because of a certain piece of technology that,” and she went off to explain how the new device work and Lucy tried to keep up with the scientific explanations.

“And what does Natsu want this for?” Lucy pressed for more detail.

“Well he said that it was a way to check buildings to make sure they’re empty if they’re about to raid it. He really hates torturing and being cruel but he’s told us before that making sure Fiore and Fairy Tail stay relatively safe is his first priority.” _So he isn’t all that bad after all_ , Lucy thought to herself. “And here we are,” Levy announced as they stopped in front of a scanner embedded in the wall and a panel was placed next to it. Levy tapped several buttons on the panel before turning to her new friend. “Ok, so all you have to do is just let the scanner scan your eyes and then you’ll be good to go.”

Hesitantly, Lucy put her eyes up to the scanner and flinched at how bright it was. “I know it’s bright, but you have to keep your eyes open,” Levy instructed. Lucy nodded in acknowledgement and put her face in front of the scanner again. The scanner flashed bright green before Levy told her she was done. _Now that I’ve had my eyes scanned, I can go anywhere in the building I want. And that means I can learn more about Fairy Tail, Natsu, and my father._ “Are you ready to go back down?” Levy asked.

“I’ll be down in a minute, I’m seeing spots from the scanner. I’ll be fine in a minute or two.” Lucy felt bad lying to her new friend but she didn’t know when she would get the opportunity to snoop around.

“Ok then, if you’re sure,” Levy consented before turning and getting in the elevator. When the elevator doors shut Lucy wandered around the floor she was on. All of the walls had multiple panels that had different information displayed on the screen. Lucy wished she could understand what they were all saying. In the middle of the room was a large, interactive map of Fiore inlaid in a white table. Different parts of the map were colored differently, some were dark red and others were a light green. Lucy tapped one of the green areas and different videos and news articles covered the map. Every single criminal act was recorded and in one corner were several line graphs measuring the amount of criminal activity over different lengths of time. In another corner was messages from a gang called Blue Pegasus which ranged from what seemed like reports to messages asking if somebody wanted to hang out or if two representatives could meet for a business negotiation. From the line graphs, it seemed that this region had little criminal activity. From this Lucy deduced that the red zones probably meant that they were more dangerous or needed to be watched more.   Lucy pressed the exit button and selected a region that was yellow. Before she could read and analyze the information that was provided the elevator door opened and Lucy froze.

“Hey Levy, wait what the hell? Why are you up here?” a man with orange hair asked her.

“Um, who are you?” Lucy asked cautiously.

“I’m Jet, I work with Levy,” the male in front of her introduced.

“You’re the one who didn’t trust me,” Lucy remembered, “you’re the one that Natsu yelled at.”

“I still don’t trust you, especially since you’re snooping up here in our surveillance room. Come on we’re going to Natsu although I doubt he’ll do anything about it. For some reason he trusts you,” he rolled his eyes. Lucy stayed quiet, she was nervous about what Natsu would do. He wouldn’t send her back home, but she shuddered to think about what he was going to stay. From what she had observed Natsu could be pretty cold but hopefully he would let her off easily. Could he really blame her for being curious?

“This is a misunderstanding, I have no ulterior motives, I swear!” Lucy pleaded as Jet firmly grabbed her wrist and dragged her into the elevator.

“Let Natsu hook you up to a lie detector and then we’ll see.” In between the time it took for them to enter the elevator and go up to the top floor there was no conversation between the two. Lucy trailed behind Jet with her head hung low in anxiety. Jet’s grip had gotten tighter and Lucy silently winced and had a feeling that bruises would form in the next day or two. When they reached a solid oak door that was surrounded by windows that had shades pulled across them, Jet knocked.

“Who is it?” Natsu asked through an intercom.

“Jet, I think there’s something you should know.” With a heavy sigh from Natsu, the door swung open.

“Lucy, what are you doing here?” Natsu asked curiously.

“I found her sneaking around in the observation and security room on the twentieth floor. I thought you should know since she could be gathering information for her father.”  
            “Why would I do that?” Lucy demanded. “I hate my father!”

“I don’t believe it,” Jet argued and Natsu massaged his temples and released a sigh.

“Jet, get out. Please.”

“Why?” Jet spluttered. “You can’t just let her get away with this!”

“Jet I just had to interrogate five stubborn people who gave me no information whatsoever so I am not in the best mood right now. It’s in your best interests if you _get out now_ before I get angry.” The threat was delivered through gritted teeth and Jet squeaked before sprinting out of the room. “So what exactly were you doing?” Natsu asked when Jet left the room.

“Levy took me to get my eyes scanned and I poked around because I was curious and because no one was telling me anything about what Fairy Tail is and what you guys do!” Lucy defended herself

“What did you see?” Natsu continued his questioning before glancing up at here. “Please sit down.” Lucy took a seat before answering.

“I just looked at that interactive map. I saw one of those green regions that had messages from a group called Blue Pegasus,” Lucy admitted.

“Did any of it seem familiar to you? You didn’t recognize any of the names there?” Lucy shook her head and Natsu was silent for a moment.

 _If I just let this go unpunished, people might see that as suspicious. But I don’t want to overreact._ Maybe if there was a way to prove that she was loyal and that she had no ill will towards Fairy Tail or any of their allies it would reassure everyone that Lucy was trustworthy. Natsu believed her when she said she wasn’t going to give any information back to her father, but no one else might see her as innocent and he didn’t want her to have enemies. He had promised that she would grow to love Fairy Tail and making people hate her wasn’t really a good start to that. Reaching a decision, Natsu nodded, mostly to himself more than anyone. “I’ll let this slide,” he said.

“Thank you so much, I swear I didn’t mean anything by it-.” Before she could continue the pinkette held up his hand to stop her rambling.

“I’ll let this slide,” he repeated. “On one condition.” At that Lucy froze and looked at him with apprehension.

“What do I have to do?”

“You have to prove to everyone, not just me, that you don’t want to betray Fairy Tail. I might believe you have on intention to, but I don’t know how many people will feel the same way. So to prove you’re trustworthy, you’re going to start running missions and jobs with Erza, Gray, and I. Once Erza returns anyway.” Lucy’s brown eyes widened with fear and she seemed to shrink into her seat.

“Isn’t there anything else I can do? Let me do research with Levy or work with Mirajane and Kinana, but I don’t want to be running jobs!”

“If you work with Levy and her team, they might think that you’re trying to gain information. I guess to make this seem convincing we have to appear that we’re keeping an eye on you. You’ll continue living at my mansion up until everyone in the gang thinks you’re trustworthy.” Lucy was speechless. She wasn’t cut out for being on jobs with Fairy Tail, let alone Fairy Tail’s leader. But once again, Natsu had her backed into a corner. While she _could_ defy his consequences, Lucy had a feeling that the effects of that would be far less harsh.

“Thank you,” was all Lucy said in response. Natsu raised an eyebrow as he regarded the blonde with her gaze looking interest at the floor.

“What are you thanking me for?” Natsu asked although he knew perfectly well why.

“For being lenient, Jet said that you would give me a terrible punishment, or he implied it anyway,” Lucy said in response her gaze still on the floor.

“So you’re fine with what I’m telling you to do?”

“Not necessarily but I really have no other option,” Lucy answered. Natsu knew that she still didn’t trust him, or Fairy Tail for that matter. And she had no reason to, but the only way to show that they _were_ a good group was to expose her to what they did and what they fought to protect. Besides, Natsu considered Lucy too valuable to let her get away. Natsu nodded in satisfaction with her answer before clearing his throat and standing up.

“Good. Now that that’s settled, do you want to head back down and eat some cake?”

“That sounds great,” Lucy agreed readily. As she got up a traditional picture frame caught her eye. The photo showed Natsu with his arm around a younger, shorter teenager with long black hair and the same dark eyes as the pinkette. They both had bright smiles on their faces and Lucy couldn’t help but smile. “Who’s the girl in the picture?” Lucy asked and Natsu visibly tensed.

“A friend,” he replied shortly before holding the door open. “Come on, all the cake is going to be gone if we don’t hurry up.”

“But who is she? A girlfriend?” Lucy persisted, not satisfied with his answer,

“No, God no. She’s just a friend, I told you. Now _let’s go_.” There was a warning in his voice that hinted that Natsu would lose it if she kept up this line of question.

 

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Nothing too exciting happens in this chapter but different characters are introduced and I remember it being as a chapter that was really fun to write. I haven't looked at this in almost a year so it was nostalgic. Anyways, enjoy!

A week had gone by since Lucy’s somewhat forced joining of Fairy Tail and nothing particularly exciting had happened. She had complied with Natsu’s requests to keep living at his house and Lucy never went anywhere without him, against her will of course. But a tentative companionship formed between the two, not necessarily based on trust but based on the idea that they were going to be stuck with each other for a while so they should at least make attempts to be friendly. Lucy still wanted to know more about the pinkette’s history, but she didn’t push him, afraid of how he might react. The blonde still hadn’t been clued into anything going on but unbeknownst to her, and the majority of the gang, that was going to change soon.

It was a normal day in the Fairy Tail headquarters skyscraper; everyone was talking, laughing, fighting, or were somewhere else in the building doing work. However there was a buzz in the air and everyone seemed on edge. As far as the members of Fairy Tail were concerned, nothing had happened but there seemed to be an ominous feeling in the air that whatever ‘peace’ Fiore had would soon come crashing down. The nonchalant, carefree air dissipated quickly when a teenage girl with long red hair marched out of the elevator and went straight to Natsu.

“We need to talk in your office,” was all the redhead had said before the pinkette nodded and gestured Gray and a long-haired bluenette over.

“Lucy come on, you’re coming with us,” Natsu called and Lucy gulped. Whatever was going on she didn’t want to be a part of it. She whimpered before she was given a pat on the back by Levy.

“You’ll be fine Lu, go on,” she tried to comfort her new friend and, quite reluctantly, Lucy dragged herself over to the group of four waiting in the elevator for her to join. The redhead turned around to look at Lucy once the elevator doors closed.

“So it’s true, Lucy Heartfilia did join Fairy Tail,” she commented. Her tone was neutral and her face was an emotionless mask.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Lucy laughed weakly and tried to disguise how nervous she was. “And you are?”

“I’m Erza,” was all she said before holding out a hand. Lucy shook it once and then withdrew, standing in the corner of the elevator. The rest of the ride continued in silence except for the classic jazz music playing in the elevator. Natsu groaned and hit his head on the elevator wall.

“And I’m Wendy,” the bluenette piped up. “I’m Natsu’s and Gajeel’s little cousin.”

“Nice to meet you,” Lucy replied and they fell into silence.

“Why does Gajeel always change the music?” Natsu whined. “He knows I don’t like jazz! What kind of cousin forces the rest of their family to endure this crap?”

“Natsu,” Erza said severely. “He’s your cousin and you should treat him as family. I won’t hear any excuses,” she reprimanded and Natsu cowered and stuttered out an “aye” in response. Once the elevator delivered them at the observation room Lucy had gotten caught in just a couple of days ago, the group of five got out and they surrounded the large interactive map of Fiore.

“Now Erza, what did you want to say?” Natsu asked once the five of us were settled.

“Are you aware of the rumors about a planned raid on a government outpost?” was how the redhead began her conversation. Everyone except Natsu shook their heads.

“I have heard a rumor or two but the only thing I heard was that whoever was planning this was after some sort of government documents. As far as I know, nothing else has been found out.” Erza nodded.

“That’s about as much as I have heard as well.”

“Do we know where the raid is going to be?” Gray asked and Erza bit her lip.

“Not exactly, no. There are many places where that could happen though. There’s Clover, Hargeon, Acalypha is where the national treasury is, Era, and of course Crocus,” Erza listed and Natsu groaned in frustration.

“Does anyone else know about this?” Natsu asked in frustration. “We can’t cover all of these at once! All of those places are too far away. We can cover Clover or Hargeon but that’s about it.”

“Why don’t we ask Sabertooth, Lamia Scale, and Blue Pegasus?” Gray suggested. “Sting and Rogue are your cousins and they have helped us before. I don’t think they would mind.”

“Would you mind asking Lyon then if Lamia Scale would want to help?” Erza asked. While the four gang members were swapping names and locations, Lucy lost track of who was saying what and who was related to who. The blonde sat quietly soaking in as much information as she could. She realized that these must have been some of the people and groups that her father had interacted with and now, more than ever, she wondered about what exactly her father had done to be put in a position where he was detested by Fairy Tail, and Lucy guessed, all of their allies.

“What do you think Lucy?” Natsu directed a question at the blonde who was lost in thought.

“Why are you asking me? You sound like you have things figured out,” Lucy pointed out but Fairy Tail’s leader shook his head.

“No, I want to hear what you think,” he insisted stubbornly and Lucy sighed. She looked at the interactive map where several cities were circled and arrows pointed from gang names to potential cities they could cover.

“Well, I agree. There’s far too much land for all of us to cover, even if we do send everybody out.”

“That’s it?” Natsu prompted. He couldn’t help it; he felt slightly disappointed that she hadn’t contributed anything to the conversation but if she wasn’t going to speak he wouldn’t force her. “Well that decides it. Gray, can you go tell Warren to get in touch with Lamia Scale, Sabertooth, and Blue Pegasus? I want to discuss this with them face to face.”

“Why can’t you do it yourself pyro?” Gray retorted and Natsu’s eye twitched.

“Will you do it or do I have to force you?” the pinkette growled in response. Before they could lunge at each other, Erza caught them by the collars of their shirt and slammed their foreheads together, leaving the two teenagers crumpled on the ground. “Ow, my head,” Natsu whined.

“That was uncalled for,” Gray complained as he massaged his head to get the pain to go away.

“It’s ok Gray, you don’t have to tell Warren, I’ll do it for you,” Wendy reassured him and the bluenette went over to a panel, pressed a button, and waited while a dial tone was resounding throughout the otherwise quiet room. When the call was received Wendy began talking and asked if he could relay a message to Sabertooth, Lamia Scale, and Blue Pegasus to come to Magnolia to talk about something.

The person, Lucy assumed this was Warren, answered with a “will do” and hung up.

“How soon will they get here?” Lucy asked and Natsu shrugged.

“If they’re not assholes sometime within the next day and if they are two or three days at most.” With that Natsu glanced down at a watch he had around his wrist before clearing his throat. “We should get going Lucy. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day. Good night guys, see you tomorrow.”

“Have a good night!” Lucy said goodbye and followed the pinkette out the door. They made a quick stop at the level where everyone normally hung out to retrieve Happy before continuing down. When they reached the garage floor, Lucy noticed that another teenager with long, out-of-control hair, red eyes, and piercings was waiting for them. _This is Gajeel_ , Lucy thought. _I wasn’t able to really see him when he found me because it was dark._

“So Salamander, I heard you called Sting, Rogue, and the others,” Gajeel stated.

“Very good, so you were paying attention today and not spending the whole time glaring at Jet and Droy for hanging out with Levy.” At that statement Natsu’s cousin had a scowl on his face and if Lucy didn’t know better, she would even say there was a blush.

“You didn’t have to call them in,” Gajeel opinionated and Natsu shook his head.

“I’m not sending a bunch of our friends out all over the country to deal with something we know nothing about. The others will help us, I’m sure of it.”

“Yes but-,” Natsu cut Gajeel off with a growl.

“It’s already done, they’re all coming tomorrow and I’m sure if you asked nicely, Rogue will fight you again even though you kicked his ass last time.” With his cousin’s mouth hanging open Natsu strode right past him and told the valet to get his car. “C’mon Lucy, we’re going home.”

“It’s freezing in here,” Lucy shivered when the two got in the car. “Can you turn the heat on?”

“Yeah sure,” Natsu agreed and tapped some commands into the control panel. “Now to see if this GPS will work.” The car was silent before Natsu groaned and hit his head against the headrest. “Why does this never work?”

“Maybe because it’s stupid like you,” Happy suggested and Natsu gritted his teeth.

“Get off my case, furball,” Natsu growled and Lucy giggled at their behavior. “Finally! Let’s get home.”

“So Sting and Rogue are your cousins?” Lucy asked as the car drove them out to Natsu’s mansion.

“Yeah, Gajeel and Wendy are my cousins too. We haven’t seen Sting and Rogue in a while though. We’re all too busy to meet up and hang out since Sting is in charge of Sabertooth.”

“Do you think they’ll bring Lector and Frosch?” Happy asked from where he was laying down in the backseat.

“I can’t imagine they wouldn’t little buddy. We don’t go anywhere without our cats.” Lucy was deep in thought and was wondering what the next day would bring. Maybe she could find something about her father although she doubted anyone would tell her.

“Hey Natsu, do you think my father could be involved in this?” the blonde voiced her question.

“Nah, he doesn’t have a reason to steal stuff from the government, he _is_ one of the higher-up aristocrats isn’t he?” Lucy bit her lip and stayed quiet in response. The contempt in his voice was obvious. The car ride continued in silence; Natsu had his head resting on the back of his seat and Lucy’s forehead was pressed up against the window before her eyes fluttered shut.

Natsu cast a glance at his new friend and sighed. While he didn’t want to leave her in the dark, he felt that he didn’t have much of a choice. While he knew for a fact that Lucy didn’t trust them all that much, the idea of telling her that her father was on the top of their high-priority list didn’t seem appealing. Especially if he threw in the fact that her father had potentially kidnapped his adopted sister.

“On another note, do Gajeel and Rogue have some kind of rivalry?” Lucy asked and Natsu was torn out of his thoughts.

            “You can say that,” he chuckled. “All of us get along well, but the first time we met each other, well, all of us got into a huge fight. Gajeel and I won of course, and Sting and Rogue have let go of it, but they normally challenge us to a fight every time they come over. It’s tradition at this point.” Lucy laughed softly before resting her head on the cold window again.

“I never had any family members like that. My mother was an only child and my father has a brother but he lives in Alvarez, so we never saw him.” She laughed bitterly, “I’m sorry you probably don’t care.” The pinkette sitting next to her stayed silent. Natsu felt bad for Lucy, he genuinely did. Being alone, with no one who particularly cared about him, was only a fear although it wasn’t irrationally based. His father had left him by himself for months after all but the fear gradually faded away into nothing more than a shadow. Now the only thing he worried about was keeping everybody safe, at whatever cost.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said in a slightly sympathetic tone. “I can’t imagine how lonely you must have felt.” Lucy was staring at him in amazement at his response. She knew her reaction was probably stupid, from how she had seen him behave, he cared greatly about all of the people he worked with. What surprised her though was that he was sympathizing with her even though she was brand new and still considered, by the majority of the Fairy Tail members anyway, untrustworthy. “You don’t have to look so surprised,” he scoffed.

“He liiiikes you,” a certain cheeky, blue cat in the back seat teased.

“Shut it Happy, I do not!” Natsu protested. “Just ignore him, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Natsu advised his companion. Lucy just nodded with a small smile on her face. “So how do you like Fairy Tail so far?” There was no answer and Natsu sighed. He could see from her reflection in the window that she was still awake but she wasn’t talking but this was hardly a rare occurrence. Natsu figured out that anytime he asked her a question or tried to start a conversation she wouldn’t talk.

All too soon the city of Magnolia receded into the dark background and they were driving through the surrounding countryside to get to Natsu’s mansion. Lucy still had her head against the window, not even trying to talk to Natsu when he attempted to start conversations. While he seemed to trust her pretty easily, Lucy still minimally trusted him. Despite how he was treating her well and taking care of her, she couldn’t rest easy while she didn’t know what his intentions were. “I’ll only start talking once you tell me more about yourself,” Lucy finally replied and Natsu sighed.

“Why are you making this so damn difficult?” Natsu complained. “I’m being generous here but is how you’re living right now not up to your standards Princess?” Lucy knew the nickname was used in a sarcastic way due to the scowl on his face and the annoyance in his voice.

“How can I tell you things about myself when I know next to nothing about you? For all I know you’re holding me ransom to gain a lot of money!” she argued back and Natsu whirled around in his seat to face her.

“Lucy, if I wanted to hurt you you’d be dead by now,” he told her in a voice that conveyed he was speaking the truth. “But hey if you’re not happy here, I could just give you back to your father and let him marry you off to some idiot you haven’t met.” And Lucy froze. There wasn’t a shadow of a doubt in the blonde’s mind that Natsu wouldn’t follow through on that threat.

“No, please don’t, I don’t mean anything by it. I’ve met so many amazing people and made some friends and I haven’t ever really had friends before. Please, please don’t send me away.” She paused for a deep breath before falling quiet again. The ride to Natsu’s mansion continued in silence and as Lucy leaned her forehead against the cold window again, she managed to fall asleep.

The next morning as she and Natsu ate breakfast together was quiet and awkward. Both were too stubborn to apologize for the argument that they had had the previous night and yet Lucy wanted to dissolve the tension between them. Lucy bit her lip and cast her glance down at the granite countertop while Natsu busied himself with making coffee. “Good morning,” Happy yawned as he flew into the kitchen and made himself at home on one of the barstools next to the one Lucy was sitting in.

“Morning little buddy, how are you?” Natsu asked as he dumped sugar in his coffee cup.

“Good, hello Lucy,” Happy greeted the blonde as he opened the refrigerator door in search of something.

“What are you looking for Happy?” Lucy asked and interrupted the blue cat in the middle of his search.

“A fish. Natsu do we have any fish left?” Happy asked.

“Check the freezer,” was all Natsu said as he leaned against the island. “So, today the people from Sabertooth, Lamia Scale, and Blue Pegasus are coming. Are you excited?”

“Kind of,” Lucy admitted. “They don’t seem to be as dramatic as Fairy Tail is.” Natsu snickered to himself. If only she knew, but Lucy would be proven wrong soon enough.

Once the group arrived at Fairy Tail headquarters and travelled up to what Lucy called the ‘hang-out floor’ she noticed eight unfamiliar faces socializing with everyone in the room. As soon as they entered the room two teenagers came running up to greet them. Well actually, to greet Natsu. Lucy didn’t seem to attract any attention from the two strangers, but she was ok with that. “Hey Sting, Rogue. Long time no see,” Natsu greeted his two cousins. “How have you guys been?”

“Busy, Jiemma and his group started stirring up trouble again, and that was a pain to deal with,” the blonde sighed. “But it’s taken care of, for the most part. At least for the time being anyway.” Natsu nodded in sympathy before turning to introduce Lucy to his cousins.

“Lucy, these are my cousins, Sting,” he pointed to the blonde teen with single crystal ear piercing, “and Rogue,” Natsu pointed to his other cousin with shaggy black hair.

“Wow, I didn’t think the rumors that you actually took Lucy Heartfilia to Fairy Tail were true,” Sting laughed.

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” Natsu snapped defensively. “She saw us on our raid at one of the Oracion Seis’ warehouses. I couldn’t just let her go.”

“Should we all go up now with the others?” Rogue suggested and Natsu nodded.

“Gray, Erza, Wendy, and everyone visiting, we’re going up now,” he announced and everyone shuffled into the elevator. The fast ride up to the top floors were filled with joyful conversation, jokes, and arguments. Lucy was quite content to stay where she was in the corner and take everything in. When the elevator stopped, the group of twelve stumbled into a hallway with white floors and a wall made out of glass so the view was of downtown Magnolia. Natsu lead them past door after door until he stopped and scanned his eyes at a particular one. All of the group followed him and entered a room with a large white table and empty white walls. Lucy guessed that both the table and the walls were interactive and would be used in the discussion and debates ahead. Once everyone found a spot Natsu cleared his throat.

“Does everyone know why we’re here?” he asked as he made eye contact with everyone in the room.


	5. Chapter 5

The response Natsu got wasn’t one he was expecting. First of all somebody looked around before asking, “why isn’t Mermaid Heel here?”

“Kagura got in touch with me and said that they’re dealing with some trouble right now, so they can’t come,” Erza answered.

Then one of the four representatives from Blue Pegasus had gotten up and started pointing to Lucy. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?” Natsu sighed and rolled his eyes with impatience.

“It’s ok Natsu. My name is Lucy,” the blonde introduced herself.

“What’s a pretty girl like you working with a group like this? If you want, you could join Blue Pegasus and-,” he was cut off with a low, warning growl.

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence Hibiki,” Natsu threatened. “She’s not going with you perverts anywhere, including your headquarters. Lucy, the four perverts over there are Hibiki Lates, Ren Akatsuki, Eve Tearm, and Ichiya Kotobuki,” Natsu told her as he pointed to each of them respectively.

“Yes, if you try anything I’ll be forced to kick you out of the building again,” Erza agreed.

“But you’re just so beautiful Erza,” Ichiya, who appeared to be their leader, complimented. I could see the redhead’s jaw tighten and she hit his jaw with a strong punch, pushing him into the wall.

“And this is why our walls are unbreakable,” Gray explained in a slightly amused tone.

“Now stop acting so immature and sit down so we can continue with this meeting,” Erza ordered and nobody questioned her. If anything everyone, especially Natsu and Gray, seemed to cower in their seats.

“Since we already introduced Blue Pegasus, I think we should introduce her to everyone else,” Wendy commented. “Lucy the girl with pink hair is my friend Chelia Blendy from Lamia Scale. Lyon Vastia is Gray’s cousin and that’s Jura Neekis,” Wendy informed her.

“And you already met us,” Sting said after Wendy finished talking. So can we start this meeting now?”

“So for those of you who don’t know, some group is planning an attack on a city that’s important to the government for some top secret files. We’ve narrowed the cities down to Clover, Era, Crocus, Hargeon, and Acalypha.”

“Why would Hargeon be a target? There’s no government building there,” Chelia questioned.

“We think it’s a likely target since there’s so much trade and Fiore has a smaller branch of the treasury there, although it’s not as big as Acalypha,” Lyon explained. Lucy was surprised that both Fairy Tail and Lamia Scale would allow people as young as Chelia and Wendy to be part of their dark, violent world. The thought made her heart hurt for them, for not having a normal childhood. But at the same time they were surrounded by people who cared about them, regardless of their background. And Wendy _was_ Natsu, Gajeel, Sting, and Rogue’s younger cousin and Lucy doubted that they would let her do things that they considered dangerous.

“Now, we don’t know what type of files they want, let alone what group is even planning this raid. Hibiki have you found out anything more about this?” Rogue asked. Natsu leaned over to whisper in Lucy’s ear.

“Hibiki is an incredible hacker and he has access to every security device and piece of technology in Fiore. Warren, who’s in charge of communications and hacking for Fairy Tail, works with him a lot.” Lucy nodded filing the information away for later for future reference.

“I’ve heard rumors that it’s going to be a group working under the Oracion Seis, but no one can confirm it. The location of this attack is still unknown to everyone,” Hibiki reported.

“Can you try hacking some places to try and get information?” Erza asked. The Blue Pegasus member shrugged.

“I could try, but I can’t promise that I’ll find anything,” he said before turning his attention to the interactive smart table and began, what Lucy could only assume, was the hacking that he promised Erza.

“While that’s great that we know the group, we all have to cover the cities so who’s taking which one?” Lyon asked.

“Maybe we could also call Makarov to see what he thinks,” Wendy piped up.

“It’s not like it would hurt,” Gray agreed with a shrug and Natsu took the advice and tapped a couple of buttons on the table in front of him and the sound of a phone ringing filled the room while three dots were blinking on one of the walls.

“We’ll see if he even answers,” Natsu rolled his eyes in annoyance. Everybody loved Makarov, he had been in charge for many years, but he was also a bit too fond of alcohol, especially now that he had taken the job as advisor and barely had any work to do. After several more moments of silence the call ended and Natsu wanted to punch something; maybe he could just settle for punching Gray after this meeting ended.

“What do we do now?” Eve asked.

“It’s obvious, each of our groups will take a city and protect it, since we have no idea what’s going to happen where,” Lyon answered.

“We still don’t know who’s going to cover what smart one,” Gray scoffed at his cousin.

“Well if Lamia Scale were in charge of this, we already would have had everything figured out,” he boasted and Gray jumped up from his seat ready to fight. A loud cough and glare from Erza got the two cousins to settle down although there were still glares when they thought no one was watching. _They must have had some sort of rivalry when they were younger_ , Lucy thought. _Maybe I can ask Gray what it was_.

“Thank you Erza,” Natsu acknowledged with a tilt of his head. “Now, now that you two strippers have finally settled down maybe we can actually get something accomplished.

“Don’t you dare try to blame this on me!” Gray snapped while Natsu ignored his friend’s outburst.

“Gray, I think if you want to get anything done without being knocked unconscious you should sit down,” Wendy cautioned and Gray, who still had a scowl on his face, sat back down stared at the wall ahead of him.

“Erza, can you ask Jellal to see if he can do anything for us?” Jura asked, breaking his silence.

“I haven’t heard from Jellal in months,” Erza mused with a heavy sigh. “If he doesn’t want to be found, no one will be able to get in touch with him; but I can try.” She tapped a couple of buttons in front of her and three dots blinked on one of the walls. After two minutes the ringing stopped and a man with blue hair and a red tattoo under one eye appeared. Lucy tried to conceal her gasp of surprise. This was Jellal Fernandez, he was even more mysterious and considered more dangerous than Fairy Tail. He had even landed in jail a couple of times. How did Erza know him?

“Hello Erza,” he greeted with a slight tilt of his head.

“Oh, he’s on the phone with his girlfriend!” a girl laughed in the background and the felon’s face turned scarlet. “Tell Erza we say hi!”

“That’s enough Meredy,” he commanded although there was still laughter and “aww”s from several people. “What is it Erza?” Jellal asked ignoring the noise around him.

“Have you heard about the upcoming raid at all?” Natsu asked, cutting off Erza before she could get a word out. “If you have we could really use your help.”

“We have yes, we were actually just wondering what cities you were going to monitor,” Jellal answered with a faintly amused smile on his face.

“Lamia Scale can cover Hargeon,” Jura spoke up.

“Wonderful, what about you Sting?” Natsu said as he scribbled the letters “LS” with a stylus on the map in front of him.

“We can go to Acalypha,” was all the blonde said and Rogue nodded in confirmation.

“Blue Pegasus?”

“Crocus,” Ichiya said and Natsu nodded.

“Which leaves you with Era, since Fairy Tail can cover Clover,” Natsu nodded towards the bluenette on the screen and Jellal paled.

“We can’t set foot in Era without getting arrested, are you out of your mind?” a woman who seemed to be in her twenties with long black hair came into view.

“Calm down Ultear, we can sort this out reasonably,” Jellal said. “But you are right, we cannot go to Era unless we want to wind up behind bars again.” Natsu muttered something unintelligible under his breath before looking back up to the wall.

“Blue Pegasus will cover Era then, so you can get Crocus and that’s final,” he announced. “We can’t risk Crime Sorciere sneaking right under the council’s nose, they’d be caught within moments of entering the city. Crocus is larger and doesn’t have as strict security so they should be fine.”

“Very well then, we’ll go there immediately and keep you updated. You’ll be in Clover then?” Natsu nodded in response. “Excellent, goodbye and keep safe.”

“Bye Ultear!” Lyon and Gray yelled and the woman waved at them with a small smile. The video disappeared and the room was silent.

“How do Gray and Lyon know Ultear?” Lucy asked out loud.

“She’s our cousin, we lived with her and her mother, our aunt, for a while before our aunt died in a fight,” Gray explained with a mourning expression.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lucy said, not really knowing what else to say.

“Well if that’s it then we had best be going now and start preparing to monitor Hargeon,” Jura announced pushing his chair back from the table and gesturing for Lyon and Chelia to follow him. Chelia and Wendy gave each other large hugs and promised to hang out soon and keep in touch. Lyon and Gray’s parting was more passive, with just a simple handshake and a “take care”.

“Sting, Rogue, do you want to hang around for a while more?” Natsu asked. “I know Gajeel wants to fight Rogue.” The two cousins glanced at each other before nodding.

“We can stay for a bit longer,” Rogue accepted the invitation. “But then we need to get going.”

“Goodbye Erza, let us meet again in the future,” Ichiya from Blue Pegasus said to the redhead. His only response was a slap to the face and a “get away from me you little troll!” and with that Blue Pegasus left.

“Where are Lector and Frosch?” Wendy asked the remaining two visitors as they walked out of the room and into the elevator that was playing jazz which made Natsu groan and collapse in the seat along the back wall.

“They’re still down with Happy, Lily, and Charle,” Sting answered. “They said coming with us would be boring.”

“So when did you join Sabertooth?” Lucy asked, trying to learn more about Natsu’s cousins.

“When we were around ten or so, about the same time Natsu and Wendy joined Fairy Tail and when our fathers-.”

“Sting,” Natsu growled shooting his cousin a glare, which obviously meant _shut up or you’re going to regret it_. “You don’t need to know that,” Natsu dismissed what Sting was about to say with a wave of his hand. “It’s not important.”

“What if I want to know?” Lucy demanded. “You’re not telling me anything about your past, but you seem to know everything about mine! How is that fair?”

“It’s not about being fair, it’s about being kept safe. The less people know about me the better, especially now since there’s a price for a million jewels on my head.”

“Everybody else in Fairy Tail seems to know about you!”  
“Yeah, because most of them were here when I came!”

“So what you’re saying is-,” Lucy started but she was interrupted by a very annoyed, angry Natsu.

“Lucy shut up!” Natsu yelled, whatever was left of his patience after the meeting had disappeared. “I’m not talking about this anymore. Go find Mirajane and Levy and hang out with them instead,” he ordered harshly. Lucy seemed shocked at his outburst and her eyes seemed watery. What Natsu had just said reminded Lucy of her father and how he was constantly telling her to go to her room and to leave him alone to do his work. With no other words she turned quickly, to make sure Natsu and his cousins couldn’t see her tears, and ran out of the elevator.

“Natsu, that was pretty harsh,” Wendy chastised. “Lucy was just being curious, you should go apologize to her.” In response to his younger cousin’s suggestion, Natsu just turned around and huffed.

“I don’t have to do anything,” he retorted crossing his arms. “She’ll get over it soon. Hey Gajeel!” Natsu shouted dropping the subject abruptly. “Rogue said he’ll fight you.”

“Hell yes!” Gajeel yelled.

“We’ll need to make this fast,” Rogue said looking at the time on the interactive wall. “Person who has more hits in five minutes wins?”  
            “Sounds good to me,” Gajeel agreed and took up a fighting stance. “Who’s going to keep track? Shrimp will you do it?”

“Stop calling me that Gajeel!” Levy yelled as her face turned a light shade of red. “But yes, I’ll do it.” While everybody in the gang was focused on the fight, Mirajane turned to Lucy who had her head in her arms on the bar countertop.

“What’s wrong Lucy?” she asked with concern. The blonde picked her head up off the table.

“Why is Natsu so defensive about his past?” Lucy took Mirajane by surprise. That was not what she had been expecting to hear.

“He’s had a really hard life, and talking about is a really sensitive spot. If he snapped at you, which I’m guessing he did, it’s because it’s just a hard thing for him to talk about. Is that it?”

“Just what he said,” Lucy paused to collect herself. “It just reminded me of how my father was after my mother died.” Lucy stopped talking and Mirajane looked at her sympathetically.

“I’ll make you a milkshake,” Mirajane told her and went off to go prepare the drink. It was only then that Lucy really heard the sounds of the fight that was occurring right behind her. There were people cheering and laughing; even Rogue and Gajeel looked like they were having fun and weren’t taking it too seriously. Everyone looked so happy and like they _belonged_ here. Yes, Lucy had gotten the symbol tattooed on her hand, but at that moment, she felt like an outsider.

“And time!” Levy yelled and the cousins stopped their fighting.

“Who won?” Gajeel asked impatiently. Levy counted up the number of tallies she had made on a thin tablet. Her blue eyebrows shot up when she had finished.

“Surprisingly Rogue did,” she concluded. “Nice job though, Rogue only won by two hits.” Gajeel fell to his knees on the floor in a state of shock.

“How?” was all he asked before Sting and Natsu burst out laughing. “Stop laughing you morons it ain’t funny!” If anything that made the two leaders laugh even harder, so much so that they had to lean on each other for support.

“The look on your face was priceless,” Natsu choked out as he started crying from laughing so hard.

“So worth it,” Sting nodded.

“Don’t you two idiots have to leave?” Gajeel whined.

“Lucy your drink is ready,” Mirajane said, tearing Lucy out of her thoughts and her observations of the scene in front of her. “Are you ok?”

Lucy took a sip of the pink milkshake and sighed. “I don’t feel like I belong here. Everyone seems so close and then there’s me,” she said almost bitterly.

“Believe it or not Lucy, everybody started out that way when they first joined. Even Natsu did,” Mira mentioned which made Lucy look surprised. “I remember when that happened. He took one look at Gray and decided they were going to be enemies. Wendy had an even harder time because she’s so shy and quiet in general. But it’s ok, it might take a while, but eventually this will feel like home.” Lucy smiled as her tears began to dry.

“Thank you Mira, I’m feeling better already.”

Several hours later everybody was still lounging around.“Oh crap, we need to get going,” Natsu said as he glanced over at the smart wall. “Lucy, Gray, Wendy, Erza, come on. We’re leaving.”

“Don’t forget your motion sickness medicine moron,” Gajeel snickered and Natsu gave him a black eye before walking towards the elevator.

“Erza, are the weapons in the car?” Gray asked the redhead as the piled into the elevator.”

“Yes they are, I placed them there this morning,” she confirmed.

“Do you have kerosene or oil or something?” Natsu questioned as he leaned against the wall trying desperately to not look motion-sick. “You know for leaving the mark if they do so happen to attack Clover?”

“Yes and the rope is in there as well,” Erza answered and Natsu nodded with a small smile on his face.

“So are you nervous Lucy?” Natsu asked as he shot the newcomer his megawatt grin that normally elicited at least some acknowledgement from her. All Lucy did this time was turn her head the other way and sniff. “Lucy?” he asked and waved a hand in front of her face. “Lucy, can you hear me?”

“Obviously she can Flame Brain but you probably pissed her off,” Gray rolled his eyes at how oblivious his best friend could be.

“Natsu apologize immediately,” Erza commanded giving him a look that left no room for argument.

“I’m sorry Lucy,” he muttered and she still didn’t make eye contact with him. “Erza, it didn’t work.”

“That’s because you didn’t mean it,” Erza replied lightly. “Now lets go to the car, shall we?” Natsu gaped at her retreating back before sprinting to catch up to them. _What does she mean I didn’t mean it? I don’t see what I have to apologize for, Lucy was the one asking too personal questions,_ Natsu thought to himself. The whole thing didn’t make any sense to him. Sure he might have been a little bit harsher than was necessary but it hadn’t been that bad had it? Then something dawned on him that he hadn’t considered. _That’s why she’s angry at me. Mavis, how could I be such an idiot?_

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

_That’s why she’s angry at me,_ Natsu thought. _I didn’t introduce her to Lector or Frosch and I knew she probably wanted to meet them._ Natsu lifted his head as he was going to apologize for what he believed to be the cause of her anger, but realized that she seemed to be sleeping. “What is it Flame Brain?” Gray asked. “You look like you’re actually thinking.” Choosing to ignore the snide comment Natsu turned to his friend.

“Do you know why Lucy’s angry at me?” Natsu questioned and Gray’s jaw dropped. “I think it might be because I didn’t introduce her to Lector and Frosch but I’m not sure.”

“How stupid can you get?” Gray asked incredulously. Before Natsu could reply Erza turned to face them with a severe expression.

“Boys, are you two fighting?”

“No ma’am,” the two frenemies chorused. “Natsu was just asking about why Lucy is so upset with him,” Gray explained and Erza raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t tell him, he needs to figure it out for himself,” was all the redhead said before turning around. “And let Lucy rest, this is her first time on a job and it’s a fairly dangerous one. Are you sure this was the right decision?”

“Yes. I needed to come up with a way to have her prove that she was trustworthy. I couldn’t think of anything better than this,” Natsu defended himself and Erza helped up her hands in surrender.

“Ok, I was just asking.”

“How long will it be before we get to Clover?” Lucy asked but it was clear that the question was not directed at Natsu.

“Not long, it’s only a couple of miles away, maybe within the next fifteen minutes,” Erza guessed, “assuming we don’t run into any problems. The only reason why we have to cover Clover is because there’s a local branch of government here where a lot of the mayors meet to discuss things. I don’t know what kind of documents they have though.”

“That ain’t our problem,” Gray reminded her. “The only thing we have to worry about is defending them.”

“I think you need to fix the problem with your shirt not being on,” Natsu commented with a grin.

“What the-?” True to his word when Gray looked down his shirt was gone. “What the fuck? Why does this always happen?”

“Because you’re a dumbass is why,” Natsu retorted before returning to looking out the window at the green meadows and fields rolling along outside the car window. “It’ll be dark soon, Erza how fast is the car going?”

“It’s going the speed limit Natsu, I don’t know what else you expect,” Wendy answered for her.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere! Can’t we go faster besides we can just knock out anybody that messes with us?” Seeing Erza’s glare, Natsu quieted down for a while. When they finally reached the city of Clover the sun was going down and people were going back to their homes from work. Several pubs and taverns were still open but they seemed fairly empty. In fact once all the workers returned home, the streets were virtually deserted.

“Why is there nobody out?” Lucy asked. The quiet, still atmosphere made her shiver and it wasn’t from the cold. Everything seemed a little _too_ quiet for a lively city like Clover.

“They probably heard about the potential raid,” Wendy said as her eyes swept over the barren road.

“Grab your weapons and move to the entrances and exits of the city hall,” Natsu ordered and there was a dash to the trunk of the car. Erza had grabbed several knives, all with varying degrees of length and thickness but were equally sharp. Natsu and Gray had weapons that Lucy had never seen before and was that a flamethrower that Natsu had?

“Erza?” Lucy asked as a revelation hit her. “Isn’t it possible that this ‘raid’ could also be people hacking into the government building’s computer system to get the documents?” The redhead paled and froze.

“We never thought about that did we?” she whispered, almost to herself. “That’s a distinct possibility,” she agreed. “Natsu,” she waited until she had his attention before continuing. “Lucy mentioned the possibility that the raid might just be an attempt at hacking into the computer systems and databases.” Lucy winced as Erza mentioned her name. Natsu tossed Lucy a surprised glance before nodding.

“If that’s the case then Gray, I want you to tap into the computer system to be on alert for any hackers. The rest of us can handle this by ourselves.” Lucy couldn’t hold back the squeak at hearing that she would be doing this, _by herself_. Natsu seemed to know what she was thinking and he rolled his eyes. “Don’t be an idiot, I’m not stupid enough to send you to do this by yourself. In fact, you’re coming with me.” _No no no, anyone but you_. She still hadn’t forgiven him for his earlier words and actions. Natsu’s short temper was something that she was wary of at all times, especially since he didn’t seem to be particularly fond of her.

“Can’t I go with Erza or Gray instead?” Lucy attempted to get Natsu to change his mind. Natsu raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

“Is there a problem with coming along with me?” Natsu answered her question with a question, something Lucy despised. “Get over yourself, you’re safer with me than any of them.” He chose to ignore Erza and Gray’s cry of protest. “Sorry, I’m not letting you go with anyone else. Erza did you give her a weapon yet?”

“No, I apologize. This,” Erza said as she presented Lucy with a gun, “is one of our newer models that’s fairly easy to use. The little lens on top is to help focus on a target and it uses energy rays instead of bullets so there’s more accuracy and you don’t have to reload. Along with that, it was made so that if your finger is not on the trigger, it’s impossible for the gun to fire. Sound easy enough?” Lucy nodded, even though she still was inexperienced and unprepared in every way possible.

“Here are the earpieces,” Natsu said as he distributed the communication device. “Does everyone have their network communicator?” There were nods of affirmation before we all went our separate ways.

Natsu deactivated the alarm system with no trouble whatsoever and we entered the building without a problem. The building wasn’t a skyscraper, it was only a couple of stories high but it still retained more historic, traditional architecture. And yet signs of new technology were everywhere. A holographic map displayed a 3d floor plan and could give you directions just by tapping a room. There was a white desk with a screen and holographic keyboard built into the surface, which Lucy figured was where a receptionist sat during the day. In the middle of the room, there was a large fountain shooting water high into the air. With the moonlight from the glass walls falling onto it, the water looked like liquid silver.

“I take it you’ve never been here before?” Natsu asked and Lucy shook her head still taking in everything around her.

“It’s beautiful,” Lucy said before Natsu grabbed her wrist.

“Come on, we need to move to one of the other exits, Wendy has this one covered.” They continued moving through the first floor and took so many turns that Lucy lost track after the first four corners. They stopped when they reached a dimly lit hallway that had a door built into the wall. It was disguised so well, the only way Lucy had been able to tell was that behind the blinds in what space should have been a window, was a keypad and an eyescanner.

“How long will we be here?” Lucy broke the silence of the hallway with a whisper.

“Until the sun comes up. Make yourself comfortable, this is going to be a long night,” Natsu advised.

“What do the network communicators do?” Lucy questioned while Natsu had his head against the cold wall with his eyes closed.

“It connects us to the building’s interface so we can see all the feeds from security cameras and any other device in the building,” Natsu explained, his eyes still closed.

“Isn’t that a lot of information to process?”

“Not really. I learned how to manage it a long time ago,” he answered with a shrug. “It was difficult at first, but not at all now. Did your father teach you how to use any technology?”

“Of course not,” Lucy laughed bitterly. “It would have given me power, which was the one thing I was not allowed to have.” Natsu fell silent before asking another question.

“Would you mind sharing why you’re angry at me?” Lucy just lifted her head and sniffed in a way that made Natsu want to punch a wall.

“You’re smart, you should be able to figure it out,” she snapped back and her retort made Natsu angry.

“We need to sort this out now incase those bastards do target Clover. Now tell me why you’re angry.” Lucy stubbornly shook her head and Natsu felt the urge to strangle her. “Lucy,” he warned. “Tell me now.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Damn it Lucy, just tell me! We can’t work together if you don’t clue me in on to what happened!”

“Well that’s fine, I never wanted to work with you in the first place,” the blonde scowled.

“Maybe I should deliver you back to your father so you can leave Fairy Tail since you obviously want to!” At that Lucy fell silent, the threat of Natsu doing that was very very real.

“No, please don’t I don’t want to go back. I’m sorry for asking about your history, Mira told me you were sensitive about it. I didn’t know.” Natsu’s hard expression softened slightly.

“Can you tell me why you’re angry?” he repeated, this time in a calmer tone of voice.

“Just, when you were yelling, it reminded me of what my father would say to me.” Natsu closed his eyes and exhaled loudly. _I should have known_ , he thought to himself. _Of course she wouldn’t want me to remind her of Jude Heartfilia._

“I’m sorry, Lucy. Really I am. I can’t imagine how awful that must have been. I’ll tell you about my past. One day.” Lucy gave a soft smile and nodded. “So, are you liking Fairy Tail?”

“It’s different than I thought it would be,” Lucy admitted. “I thought everybody would be violent and bloodthirsty but they’re not. Plus Mira, Lisanna, and Levy are all really nice.” Natsu laughed.

“Oh if only you knew. You still need to meet Juvia too,” Natsu mused. “She’s infatuated with Gray, she’ll probably be back tomorrow. Right now she’s at the Akane resort and spa looking for a secret drug organization that’s supposedly based there.”

“How infatuated is she?” Lucy pressed.

“If anyone looks at the stripper for more than five seconds she calls them a love rival and will probably knock them out,” Natsu chuckled at Lucy’s expression. “You look terrified.”

“But that’s not normal,” she protested. “You’re just exaggerating right now.” Natsu shook his head in amusement.

“It might be because Gray’s the one who brought her to Fairy Tail after they got into a fight when Juvia was a part of Phantom Lord. We kicked their asses and Juvia had nowhere else to go so Gray brought her to Fairy Tail.” _So they aren’t really bad people, not as bad as I thought anyway_ , Lucy reasoned.

“I think everybody’s wrong about you. You’re not as bad as everyone thinks,” Lucy commented and Natsu’s smile widened so she could see his abnormally sharp incisor teeth.

“You met me when I was blowing up a building,” he reminded. “And besides,” his grin become more feral and dangerous, “you haven’t seen us get _truly_ angry yet Princess.” Lucy believed him with no doubts. “I kind of hope you’ll never have to, but that won’t happen.” Hours seemed to pass by as Natsu and Lucy continued making small talk in the hallway they were monitoring. From the network communicators Natsu could see that nothing had happened so far and no one had spoken over the earpieces except to repeat that nothing was happening. Natsu tensed next to Lucy and she eyed him with concern.

“Are you ok?” she asked.

“Something’s not right,” he muttered. “The air is different, I can feel it.” Now that Lucy noticed it there did seem to be a sense of foreboding lingering in the air even though, as far as she was aware, nothing had happened. Lucy shivered and pulled her knees closer to her chest.

“We’ll be ok right?” she whispered, not that Lucy doubted Natsu because she didn’t. She knew from news stories that he was an amazing fighter; everybody in Fairy Tail was, except maybe for Nab, who Mira had pointed out on several occasions doing nothing but hanging around one of the smart walls.

“You’re a part of Fairy Tail,” Natsu stated. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise.” The reassurance made her feel slightly better and she fingered the weapon that Erza had given her.

“I have no idea how to use this,” Lucy mumbled as she shifted it in her hands, judging its weight. Any pointers Natsu?”

“Like Erza said, this is a beginner’s ray gun so it uses rays instead of bullets so you don’t have to worry about reloading it over and over. Just press the trigger and it’ll shoot. Don’t worry, it’ll be easier if you’re in a fight. Don’t overthink this stuff.” Lucy nodded.

“Can I have a practice shot?” Lucy asked and Natsu laughed.

“No, but you’re about to get a lot of practice,” he chuckled. “Apparently, from what Gray is saying, there were multiple attacks and one of the groups just so happened to attack here,” he reported cheerfully.

“How can you be so nonchalant about this?” Lucy was borderline panicking at the moment. She wasn’t ready to be in a fight, let alone one over important government documents.

“You’ll get used to fighting soon enough.” Natsu gave a wicked grin before adding, “I’m sure you’ll learn to love it.” Lucy gulped and her hands shook as she held the gun carefully in her hand. “Here they come,” Natsu warned right before Lucy heard voices down the hall.

“No you idiots! Check the archive room down the hall! I don’t care just fucking do it!” Natsu winced at the harsh tone and felt bad for the poor people that were being bossed around.

“You know, I don’t like the way you’re treating your comrades,” Natsu casually called as the thieves were right in front of them. “Don’t you care about the people you work with?” The leader laughed.

“Why should I? These are newbies; they’ll die instantaneously. This is just a test to see if they’ll actually survive in our world. Surely you know what that’s like? Considering this is the Heartfilia girl’s first time being on a mission.” Natsu’s jaw tightened, as did the grip on his weapon.

“Maybe so, but I won’t leave her here to die, because I actually _care_ about the people in Fairy Tail. It’s something you should learn.” And with that Natsu shot a blast of fire out of his gun and it slammed the group of five into the wall. Lucy froze as soon as the first strike was made. The intruders were armed with knives and guns of their own, albeit very simplistic guns that were put to shame by Fairy Tail’s impressive weapon arsenal. A full-on firefight began and Natsu seemed to be having the time of his life. He was cackling gleefully while shooting with a laser gun. His other fire-throwing one was propped against the wall. “C’mon Lucy, the fatter guy is open right now. Time for your first lesson!” At that Lucy hesitantly raised her gun, looked through the lens, and fired. The victim was thrown threw the wall and into a very complicated tangle of wires, cords, and pieces of technology. As the fight wore on Natsu was switching back and forth between weapons and Lucy was strategically shooting enemies. To her delight with the gun she was using she was actually a decent shooter. Maybe not as skilled as Alzack or Bisca, but for her she was happy. To her surprise she found herself actually having a bit of fun. Having power over other people was something she had never experienced before and now that she was, for she and Natsu had the upper hand, it was a feeling she rather liked. She decided to focus on what that meant for her as a person when they weren’t in a life-threatening situation.

The fight was pretty much one-sided. The would-be thieves might have been cocky at the beginning of the fight but now they were collapsed on the floor, not dead of course, but exhausted and hurt. Eventually their leader raised his hands in the universal gesture for surrender. “We give in! We give in!” he cried.

“That’s such a disappointment,” Natsu pouted. “Oh well, you guys will have to come with us back to headquarters for an interrogation.

“That won’t be necessary,” Gray objected into his earpiece. “Lyon’s group already took some the ones at Hargeon hostage, as did Jellal and his group. So you can just tie them up and leave. But be sure to do a scan for technology and weapons.”

“Never mind, we just get to tie you guys up and let the government take care of you. We already captured some of your comrades at different locations so we have no use for you,” he smiled gleefully yet it was feral and made Lucy feel bad for their enemies. “Come on, get up,” he ordered and herded them to the main entrance where Gray, Erza, and Wendy were already ready with scanners. “Be sure not to miss a single thing,” Natsu reminded. “If you forget something we’ll have hell to pay.” Following his instructions the three started swiping their scanners over the criminals and confiscated anything that could be a weapon and any piece of technology, even if it was just a watch. Natsu meanwhile was hunched over and fiddling with rope in his hands to form the shape of the Fairy Tail symbol. He noticed the criminals’ car was fairly close too.

“Erza put the chips on them and bind them while I finish this up. Lucy watched in horror as Erza roughly bound their wrists and ankles before taking a syringe to inject something into their neck.

“Don’t worry Lucy,” Wendy reached a hand out to the girl who had no idea what to make of the scene in front of her. “I created those myself to make sure that they were painless and wouldn’t have any negative affects.”

“But why are you tagging them? That seems so inhumane,” Lucy asked, aghast that this sweet, younger girl was involved in and had created, things that dark.

“It’s so we always know where they are, so if they decide to stir up trouble then we know where to find them immediately. It’s for the public’s safety Lucy, not because we’re cruel people.” _Especially after what happened to Evelyn,_ Wendy silently added. Thanks to that event, Natsu had decreed that everyone in the guild should have a chip so nothing like that happened ever again. Lucy bit her lip; she still didn’t agree with what the little bluenette was saying, but she was in no position to argue so held her tongue and stayed silent.

The final act that night was when Natsu blew up the criminals’ car and tossed a burning, rope Fairy Tail symbol on the ground.

 

 

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

“What’s wrong Lucy?” Natsu asked as he was reclining in his seat. “You’ve been quiet.” The blonde stayed silent and leaned her forehead against the cool window. “Lucy, c’mon talk.

“Did you have to inject them with those trackers?” she asked, still avoiding eye contact with him.

“This again?” he sighed heavily and resisted the urge to his head on the dashboard. “It’s so we know if they stir up more trouble. They’re nothing but a safety precaution.”

“But they’re still people!”

“People who could kill others unchecked,” he argued back. “Believe me when I say I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was necessary.” The bitter way he said it made Lucy pause. She remembered Levy mentioning that Natsu didn’t like hurting people that much but he would if push came to shove.

“If they’re in prisons though-“

“You’re so naïve! Just because you think prisons are supposed to be secure doesn’t mean they are. Especially with all of the technology, hacking has become easier as has infiltration. The trackers are just incase so we can find them and capture them before they hurt anyone or do any damage. They’re not bad.” The two fell silent as Happy was sleeping happily in the back seat.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Lucy said softly and Natsu glanced at her.

“All of us earned our express ticket to hell years ago. I’m not too concerned about it anymore. Besides if our reasons are justified does it even matter?” Lucy had no response to that and the rest of the car ride was silent. When they pulled up to Natsu’s mansion they went their separate ways. Lucy went straight to bed while Natsu went to a room Lucy hadn’t seen yet, Evelyn’s room. Natsu had given his adopted little sister one of the most beautiful bedrooms in the house. She had painted the walls a light blue and there was a large glass door covered by flowing, thin white curtains that lead out to a balcony. A dark wood bed was pressed against the center of the left wall with a small night table to the right and paper lanterns of different heights hanging above it. On the wall above the bed was a calming green, blue, and purple painting of a tranquil lake. On the opposite wall was a desk and to the left of the door was a large walk-in closet.

“I’m sorry Evie,” he murmured as he collapsed on the light green and white quilt on the bed. On the nightstand was a picture that Natsu had almost forgotten about. He had Evelyn up in the air, spinning around. An exhilarated grin was on her face, a mischievous one on Natsu’s. Both of their dark eyes had been shining with happiness and love. Evelyn’s original eye color was blue, but she decided she wanted it changed so she looked more like her new brother. Staring at the picture Natsu felt tears fill his eyes as he thought of the sort of hell his angelic sister was going through at that moment. In retaliation Natsu punched the wall, making sure not to crack it.

“Natsu,” Happy called as he stuck his head into the room. “Are you ok?”

“What kind of an older brother am I?” Natsu laughed bitterly. “I couldn’t even keep her safe. I broke my promise.” A soft paw was placed on Natsu’s knee.

“We didn’t know. I’m sure if you had, this wouldn’t have happened,” Happy did his best to console his friend but Natsu showed no signs of acknowledging what the Exceed had just said. With a soft goodnight, Happy walked out of the room leaving Natsu alone in the room. He flicked the lights off and buried his nose in her blankets. Evelyn’s scent of pine and campfire smoke still lingered on her furniture. With no one around, he let his emotions run wild and he cried and cried and cried until he fell asleep.

Natsu woke up to the sound of the door sliding open. “Natsu?” He lifted his head and looked towards the door. Lucy stood there, a look of concern on her face. “Are you ok?” He didn’t say anything. Instead he just rolled over to stare at the ceiling. Lucy was concerned. He hadn’t been downstairs or in his office when she had woken up and he was _always_ up before her. She and Happy had wandered around the mansion trying to find him until they had entered this room. Natsu’s eyes were red and puffy, like he’d recently been crying. “Who does this room belong to?” The blonde’s brown eyes fell on the picture to the side of the bed. The same girl in the picture in Natsu’s office was in another picture here too. Instead of the two standing side by side, the girl was being spun around in the air by Natsu.

“Evelyn came here when she was nine. I didn’t know who she was or where she came from. All she had was her name and the clothes on her back. I needed company so I took her in.” He released a shaky breath and Natsu felt tears start to prick his eyes just thinking about how happy she had been when he had introduced himself. She had said that she had been alone for weeks and that she had to stop by his house and look at the flowers in the garden. When he offered her a place to live a grin almost as bright as his lit up her face and she eagerly accepted his offer. Evelyn had fit right in at Fairy Tail when he took her the next day. Everyone had welcomed her with open arms and she embraced the new family saying that she had never had a true one before. “She was kidnapped a couple of months ago. Nobody’s seen her since.”

“Do you have an idea of who took her?” Natsu sighed and looked away from his guest. How was he supposed to tell her that Jude Heartfilia, her father, was their prime suspect? From what their strategist, Mavis Vermillion, said was that he needed some sort of leverage or a bargaining chip. Or maybe it was just because he was a sadist; he had hurt his only living family member left after all.

“No,” Natsu lied. “There are too many people who would love to have a member of Fairy Tail as their captive. “We’ve made a lot of enemies.”

“Do you want breakfast or-“

“No, we’ll go to Fairy Tail for breakfast. Let me get ready first. Hey Lucy?”

“Yeah?” she turned around as she stood in the doorway to leave.

“Thank you.” He didn’t offer any explanation of show any facial expression but she could tell from his voice that he genuinely appreciated her just being there.

“You’re welcome,” she smiled. Maybe this morning had been the beginning of them becoming better friends. Either way, it felt good to be appreciated for once. She hadn’t been given that sense of validity since her mother had died. Natsu’s words of gratitude had made her feel warm, a feeling that she wanted to stay forever.

Natsu on the other hand had been, and still was, beating himself up for letting her get taken in the first place. He _knew_ he should have been with her when she went exploring Crocus by herself. He remembered getting the news from Jellal’s group. While everyone was horrified, Natsu had felt physically sick. He remembered going home to a house that seemed cold without Evelyn’s laughter ringing through the halls. That was the first time he had cried in years. He had fallen into a deep depression after that, spending his time locked up in his house, crying, and occasionally taking razors to his wrists. It was only when Erza had broken into his house and dragged him back to Fairy Tail that he began to feel better, little by little. He still had slumps, like last night, but it had gotten better. Now all of their allies were looking for his adopted sister and that filled him with some hope. Besides, Evelyn was tough, he just had to have faith in her strength.

“Natsu?” Lucy called and he got shook himself out of his stupor.

“Yeah, I’ll be down soon,” he replied. He quickly threw on a nondescript gray sweatshirt and black sweatpants before joining the blonde downstairs. “Ok, I’m ready to go.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I just need to have a fight with the Ice Princess and then I’ll feel better,” he reassured Lucy, which wasn’t a lie. Getting in a fight with Gray was probably the best thing for him right now. If he couldn’t take out that frustration on himself, then he’d just take it out on somebody else. Besides, Gray probably had done something to warrant such an act.

As soon as the car was parked in the underground parking garage, Natsu stormed up to the lounge and immediately made a beeline for his long-time rival. Natsu greeted the black-haired teen with a strong punch to the face.

“What the fuck was that for charcoal breath?” Gray snapped as he tenderly pressed at the sensitive area on his cheek. That was going to leave a bruise.

“That was for two weeks ago when you stole my food!” Natsu yelled back. That event had happened, however.

“It was a damn accident!”

“Well I don’t care!” With no other words the two got into a fistfight.

“Hey Mira,” Lucy said as she took her place next to Lisanna who was watching the unfolding brawl with interest. “Hello Lisanna.”

“Hello Lucy, how are you today?” Mira asked, her younger sister still somewhat absorbed in the fight.

“I’m ok…” she hesitated, wondering if she could tell Mirajane about what happened that morning. “I’m not sure Natsu is though,” she dropped her voice to a whisper to avoid being overheard.

“Was it something to do with Evelyn?” Lisanna questioned, already knowing the response. Lucy nodded her head and the two Strauss sisters sighed.

“Can you tell me more about her? Natsu was pretty vague about it.”

“Evie was great; she and Natsu had similar personalities. Both of them were energetic and always up for a good fight. Natsu had trained her well, she could even hold her own against Gray if she really wanted to,” Lisanna described. “The day she went missing was terrible for all of us.”

“We’re still looking for her though,” Mirajane added brightly. “Hibiki, you know the hacker from Pegasus, has tapped into every possible video camera in the whole country. He and Warren generally work together on this kind of thing.”

“Isn’t Minerva from Saber and Lyon working on it too?” Lisanna asked and her sister shook her head.

“Surprisingly, Rogue is working on it instead of Minerva, but that might just be because Evie was an adopted cousin. Lyon is working on it, but not as actively as the others.”

“Mira, can I get a strawberry milkshake? I need something to cheer me up after this?” Lucy requested and Lisanna nodded her head in agreement.

“The usual for me too Sis,” Lisanna ordered and her older sister grinned.

“Coming right up!” she chirped just as a loud voice thundered, “what is the meaning of this?”

“Oh shit,” Lucy heard Natsu whisper under his breath since the room had gone quiet almost as soon as the redhead entered through the doors. “Nothing Erza, we were just playing around. You know, some lighthearted rough play?” Natsu and Gray were sweating when Natsu tried to talk them out of getting beaten up.

“Even sometimes the best of friends fight,” Erza conceded with a small smile and walked away towards the bar. The two friends sighed in relief and slipped out of the room. “Some strawberry cake if you don’t mind Mirajane,” she sighed. “Jellal had troubling news.”

“How is he?” Mira asked knowingly, a sly look in her bright blue eyes. Lucy leaned over to whisper in Lisanna’s ear.

“Are the two of them dating?” The white-haired girl giggled in response and shook her head.

“Not that we know of, but everyone in Crime Sorciere thinks they are.”

“What is it?” Mirajane asked as she brought out the cake that Erza was always craving.

“Something I want to discuss with Natsu first before anyone else hears about it,” Erza answered mysteriously. “If you don’t mind I’m going to go up and speak with him now.”

“Good luck,” the three girls remaining at the bar chorused.

Natsu was in his office scanning through reports that Fairy Tail members had sent in when he heard a knock on the door. “Come in. Oh, hi Erza. I didn’t expect to see you here. Do you mind if I have a bite of your cake?” When he was answered with a death glare he backed off. “So what do you want?”

“Jellal told me he heard news about Evelyn,” she stated bluntly and Natsu went into a state of shock. _Evelyn…she’s still alive!_ He thought and a wide grin spread across his face.

“Do you know where?” he demanded.

“Jellal told me that Ultear heard that she was being kept somewhere in Hargeon. He narrowed it down to a couple of buildings, all of which are headquarters for gangs. Two of which owe their allegiance to the Heartfilias.”

“That bastard,” Natsu growled. He stood up with enough force to send his chair flying back into the wall.

“We can’t do anything rash yet,” Erza chastised. “You know that. Call the others up and we can come up with a plan from there.”

Meanwhile down in the lounge a certain bluenette came rushing through the doors yelling “I’m back my darling Gray!”

“That’s Juvia,” Mirajane pointed out to Lucy and she remembered what Natsu had said the night before about how she was infatuated with Gray. “She’s in love with Gray; it was a love at first sight thing.”

“Oh hi Juvia,” Gray greeted her as she sat next to him. “How was the job?”

“I already sent in the information to Natsu but Akane was only a branch, it wasn’t the actual center. I think the real business is based in Alvarez but they have their operations here.” Gray’s eyebrows drew together.

“That’s…interesting. What made you think that?”

“I was able to hack into their system for a short amount of time and most of the codes and orders came from a source that’s not from anywhere in Fiore, let alone Ishgar.” She paused for a minute her eyes scanning the room. “Who is she?” Juvia asked pointing to the newest member of Fairy Tail.

“That’s Lucy Heartfilia. She ran into one of our operations so Natsu took her in. She joined a week ago.” Juvia sniffed in response.

“Is she a potential love rival?” the girl asked, warily eyeing the blonde who was still chatting at the bar with Mira and Lisanna.

“What? No! She’s not!” Gray exclaimed so everyone in the lounge stared at him before turning back to their conversations. Before they could continue, a ringing sound was coming from the wall. Gajeel, being the closest one to the screen tapped the accept button.

“I need Gajeel, Gray, Lucy, and Wendy to come up to the observation floor now,” Natsu ordered. “It’s an emergency; I have Sting and Rogue on the phone there too so for the love of Mavis _hurry up_.” With that he hung up and the four selected people glanced at each other and shrugged.

When they reached the observation room, sure enough, Sting and Rogue’s faces were floating in the air due to a projected hologram. “Finally, what took you guys so long?” Natsu sighed impatiently.

“It ain’t our fault the elevators are slow as shit,” Gajeel whined and Natsu resisted the urge to punch him in the face.

“If I find that you changed the music to fucking jazz again, I will murder you,” Natsu threatened before clearing his throat. “Anyway, Erza came to tell me something important. Erza would you like to-“ The redhead cut him off before he could finish his statement.

“Jellal told me that he heard a rumor about where Evelyn might be or where she had been.” There were gasps from everybody in the room. Natsu had his hands balled up into fists so he could resist the urge to punch something, or someone. “Either way it’s a lead. Ultear heard that she was being kept somewhere in Hargeon, all at gangs’ headquarters. All of them seem to be under the control of a group under the Balam Alliance or a,” she paused trying to find the right word to _not_ let Lucy know that her father was involved in this. “…benefactor of sorts. You all know who I’m referring to?” Everybody except for Lucy nodded their heads.

“Wait, who is this benefactor?” Lucy asked and five pairs of eyes landed on Natsu.

“I’ll tell you later Lucy,” Natsu promised her before turning back to the matter at hand. “Now, any suggestions on how we should do this? Sting? Rogue?”

“I wouldn’t go rushing in immediately,” Rogue advised. “Scout out the areas first and confirm that this is a legitimate lead. Then we’ll need to figure out the systems and –“

“We don’t have time for this!” Natsu yelled, slamming his hand down on the giant interactive map of Fiore. “She could be dying!”

“Natsu, all of us want to get her back, don’t make it sound like the rest of us don’t care,” Sting snapped at his cousin. “But we need to follow Rogue’s advice and plan this out, whether you want to or not.” Natsu looked like he was about to retort but Erza gave him a look that said _argue back and you’re dead_ so he instantly shut up.

“Alright,” he relented crossing his arms over his chest and trying to hide the sneer on his face. “What brilliant plan do you geniuses have?”

 

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has self-harm mentions in it. It's towards the end so I'll mark it with asterisks. Otherwise, enjoy

“So who’s that benefactor you were talking about?” Lucy asked as they were driving home from downtown Magnolia. Natsu sighed and figured he had to tell her.

“Your father,” he stated simply. “He provides Tartaros, the Oracion Seis, and Grimoire Heart with money, and he also plays a large part in the black market for drugs and weapons.”

“No, that can’t be, he would never-“

“Princess, I hate to break it to you, but Jude Heartfilia probably lied a lot in order to keep his work a secret. I wouldn’t be surprised if the person he tried to engage you to was some gang lord.”

“Why does he hate Fairy Tail then?”

“Simple,” Natsu shrugged. “We have more power than he does, kind of. While we have the more advanced weaponry and technology he has hundreds of gangs and businesses under his control. If what we heard can be trusted he also has some sort of agreement with Zeref,” he shuddered at the name and Lucy made a mental reminder to ask him about it later. “He tried to be friendly with us once or twice before but we already had all the allies we needed and besides,” Natsu’s nose wrinkled. “We don’t work with drug and crime syndicates.”

“So you think he took your sister?” Natsu nodded his head vigorously.

“I know he did. Jude Heartfilia has the best security money can buy. Even the gangs that are the head of the Balam Alliance have tech that we can hack from time to time so _something_ would have shown up.”

“He wouldn’t have done that though!” Lucy cried turning in her seat to face her companion. “If he really _does_ play a part in Fiore’s underworld, he wouldn’t do that!”

“Can you be sure? After all, you could consider what he did to you as abuse,” Natsu contradicted with a small smirk growing on his face. “And you said so yourself, he didn’t say _anything_ about his work to you. Doesn’t that strike you as suspicious?”

“But Father _never_ talked about his work, even while my mother was alive,” Lucy exclaimed. “He’s always kept it to himself!”

“Yeah, how do you think he would look if he did say that he had built up an underworld empire based on drugs, weapons, and murder? That certainly would ruin his image, don’t you agree?”

“I don’t believe you!”

“Damn it Lucy, what do I need to show you?” Both teenagers were getting fed up with each other. Lucy was fighting back tears and Natsu was trying not to punch a dent in the interior of his car.

“Shut up! You’re just saying this to get under my skin!” Natsu gave a warning growl.

“I can have Loke tell you,” Natsu suggested and Lucy’s eyes widened as she looked out the window. Loke, out of everybody in Fairy Tail, had no reason to lie to her. “Or I can show you recordings of deals and raids he participated in himself. Whichever one you like.” Lucy just ignored him and Natsu looked out the windshield as if he was driving, even though the car was automatic. There were so many things he wanted to say. _I’m sorry for your shitty life. I’m sorry your mom died. I’m sorry your father is an asshole_. Maybe he would even want to apologize for bringing her to Fairy Tail in the first place.

“Do you regret coming to Fairy Tail?” Natsu broke the silence and Lucy remained quiet before slowly shaking her head.

“No. If it weren’t for Fairy Tail, I’d be married to some egotistic asshole and be completely miserable. At least here, I have the illusion of freedom and people who genuinely care about me.” So at least she didn’t hate him for that. Which was reassuring, not by much, but enough to show that he didn’t entirely screw up her life.

“Natsu, who’s Zeref?” Lucy asked. “You mentioned him earlier but I’ve never heard of him before.”

“Zeref is everyone’s worst nightmare. He’s the one pulling the strings of the whole Balam Alliance and, if the rumors can be true, he has some sort of alliance with your father. It’s harder to track Zeref down because he controls his underworld kingdom here from the capital of Alvarez. He’s virtually impossible to track down and we don’t have any allies in any other country.” Lucy was terrified. To know that her father could have potentially done business with an all-powerful gang lord, one who controlled three of the strongest gangs in Fiore, was scary.

“I kind of wish I hadn’t asked now,” Lucy muttered and Natsu gave a small smile.

“I can understand that. When I first heard about him I was pretty overwhelmed too, but I was pretty young when I first heard about him so it seemed scarier.” He glanced over at her paler-than-normal face. “Don’t look so scared. You have Fairy Tail. You’re not alone. We’ll protect you,” he promised and Lucy gave him a small smile. “When we get back you should get some sleep, tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.” With a small wave, Lucy padded down the hallway to her bedroom.

The day’s activities were whirling around in her head, distracting her so she couldn’t sleep. On one hand hearing Natsu’s abbreviated version of what happened to his adopted sister made her heart hurt. She was happy that there was a shot at getting her back, but at the same time, attacking some group that was powerful, especially if it was linked to her father was scary. Natsu’s promise replayed itself in her head. _We’ll protect you_ , he had said and she had to smile at the reassurance. Natsu was many things, but a liar wasn’t one of them. And he did care about his friends, both in Fairy Tail and other gangs. Lucy smiled. She wasn’t alone anymore, for the first time in years she had something that resembled a family.

“Lucy get up,” she felt someone shaking her shoulder and she tried to push them away. “Lucy come on, Natsu’s not in a good mood right now.” Lucy’s eyes blinked open and Happy was staring her right in the eyes. “Good now come on. Natsu’s pretty angry.”

“Great,” she mumbled, sleep still holding her in its clutches. She hastily pulled on her clothes and put her hair up in a ponytail before going down to meet Natsu. “Good morning.”

“Wonderful you’re ready. There’s been a change of plans. Somehow word about you being here got out and your father wants to talk to me otherwise he’s threatened to attack us,” Natsu summarized as he sipped his coffee. Lucy’s face paled and she started trembling.

“Natsu,” her voice broke from tears. “I can’t go back, please!” He patted her head and smiled.

“Don’t worry, he’s not laying a finger on you. Anybody who abuses their family doesn’t deserve to have them back. You’re part of our family now, and nothing he do can change that. Now are we ready?” She gathered her courage and nodded.

“I want to go into the negotiations with you,” she decided and Natsu raised his eyebrows once the car was on the road. “I need to learn how to stand up for myself and I need to let him know that I won’t be a part of his game anymore.”

“That’s the spirit Lucy!” Happy cheered as he curled up on her lap. The ride into downtown Magnolia was quiet and Lucy was collecting her nerves. After they had been driving after a while, Natsu swerved into a parking lot and groaned. “What’s wrong?”

“He wants to meet in neutral territory so we have to go into Clover now,” Natsu hit the steering wheel in frustration. “Fuck him and his BS games!” Rather impatiently Natsu hit the coordinates of the meeting place into the GPS and waited for the car to change its direction.

“I’m sorry that we can’t go looking for your sister today,” Lucy apologized and Natsu looked at her oddly.

“What are you apologizing to me for? You haven’t done anything,” he replied and Lucy looked down at her hands. “Hey don’t look so sad, don’t worry, everything will be fine.” Lucy nodded and tried her hardest to believe him. During the daytime, Clover was much more lively than the first time she had been. People were crowding around interactive maps, wandering into cafés, and buzzing from shop to shop like honeybees that were attracted to flowers.

“Hello, what can I do for you?” a secretary asked, slightly scared when she realized who was asking the question.

“What room is Jude Heartfilia in?” Natsu asked and the woman hurriedly scrolled through a list presented on her desk.

“Room 213, have a good day,” she waved them away as quickly as she could after giving them a card.

“Is everyone that afraid of you?” Lucy asked Natsu and the pinkette sighed.

“Unfortunately most people are. It makes dealing with some things easier, but it can be annoying. We don’t do anything wrong, we’re just making sure that Fiore is safe and we don’t get the respect we deserve for that.” Much to Natsu’s dismay, smooth jazz was playing in the elevator and Lucy and Happy were laughing at how he tried to cover his ears up when the elevator was in motion.

“Gajeel ruined jazz for me,” he muttered. “When he was younger he thought he could be a singer and he decided that smooth jazz was his favorite genre. It was nightmarish.” Lucy laughed at Natsu’s not-so-fond memory of his cousin. When they reached the door Natsu swiped the card he had been given and the door slid open. “Jude Heartfilia, what a…pleasure to see you again,” Natsu forced the greeting out with a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Same to you Mr. Dragneel. And it appears you brought Lucy with you,” his eyes went a tiny bit colder. “How about we sit down and begin this discussion.” Natsu sat but Lucy didn’t. The fear on her face was plain as day and Natsu gently touched her wrist.

“Come on Lucy, it’s ok. I won’t let him hurt you,” he whispered so only she could hear. Shakily, she nodded and sat down. When Natsu went to move his hand away, Lucy grabbed hold of it again and made it clear that he wasn’t going to be moving anytime soon.

“So the rumors are true; you do have my daughter with you,” Jude Heartfilia said as he took his place at the other side of the small table. He took a sip of water from a pitcher that was resting next to him. “Would you like some water?” Lucy reached out to grab a glass but Natsu stopped her.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s drugged or poisoned,” Natsu spat, his dark eyes flashing with disgust and hatred. Lucy’s father looked affronted but let it slide. “What the hell do you want Heartfilia?”

“Give Lucy back,” was all he stated and Natsu’s eyes narrowed. “I promised her fiancée that she would be back by this weekend.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” Natsu replied haughtily. “She already joined Fairy Tail and I have no intention of letting her go back to an abusive father.” At the last words the blonde man narrowed his eyes. At his facial expression, Natsu smirked. “I don’t approve of family mistreating other family members so I can’t just let her go back to you. Besides, Lucy doesn’t want to leave, right Lucy?” Before she could even begin to formulate a response, her father’s eyes grew dark.

“What do you mean she joined Fairy Tail?” he growled.

“Exactly what it sounds like,” Natsu boasted. “Lucy, show him your right hand,” Natsu commanded. “He can’t do anything to hurt you since this is on neutral ground.” Lucy extended her right hand, which was shaking and the blonde man sitting across from them slammed his hand on the table.

“Damn it Lucy why the hell would you do that?” he bellowed and whatever courage his daughter had vanished instantly. She recoiled and gently touched the cheek that had been bruised weeks before, the day she had ran away. Natsu positioned himself in front of her in a gesture of protection.

“If it makes you feel any better I didn’t give her much of a choice. It was either join or get sent back to you wrapped in a bow,” Natsu smirked, gaining immense satisfaction when Jude Heartfilia realized that his daughter had picked Fairy Tail over her own father.

“How?” he spat out and Natsu grinned.

“Yeah, good question. I mean I guess it can be pretty difficult to wrap up an alive person in wrapping paper and a bow. You’d have to figure out a way for them to breathe obviously and-.”  
            “That’s not what I meant moron!” Jude Heartfilia was livid.

“It’s not?” Natsu tilted his head, pretending to be oblivious.

“You’re lucky we’re on neutral ground otherwise I would kill you and destroy the rest of your pathetic gang!” Spit was flying from his mouth by now and Natsu dramatically flicked off a drop of water that wasn’t really there.

“Everyone’s biggest mistake is underestimating us,” Natsu said in a low, dead serious tone. “If you value the lives of the people you work with and your resources I highly recommend you stay away and let go of the idea that Lucy belongs to you. Come on Lucy, it’s time to go.”

“This isn’t over Dragneel! I’ll kidnap her if I have to; I won’t let you win!”

“Over my dead body,” Natsu snapped.

“Hold on Natsu, I have something to say too,” Lucy spoke up and Natsu was looking at her with something like pride in his expression. “I did run away because I hated living with you. It didn’t feel like I was living at all. You were too busy caring about your drug and crime syndicate to ever think about me. Being with Natsu, being with Fairy Tail, is the first time I’ve felt happy since before Mama died. I’m not a bargaining chip, I never was! And now that I know what freedom feels like I’m not giving it up!” And with that the two left. When they were in the car and on track for going to Fairy Tail Natsu finally looked over at Lucy who had been silent.

“That was a pretty amazing speech there Lucy,” Natsu congratulated. “Eh? Lucy?”

“Lucy are you ok?” Happy asked when Lucy had her head down and was quiet in response to Natsu’s praise.

“Yeah, I’ll be ok,” she gave a small smile but Natsu narrowed his eyes. “Natsu, did you mean what you said back in the meeting room?”

“Lucy,” he turned to face her, his dark eyes serious yet caring, something she hadn’t seen in his eyes whenever he talked or interacted with her. “I swear I will not let you be treated like that ever again. I know I haven’t been,” he paused looking for the right word,” courteous to you all the time but, it just takes a while for me to trust new people. Believe me when I say it’s nothing personal.” He was about to continue before he pressed his earpiece farther into his ear and swore violently.

“Natsu?” Lucy asked, tentatively laying a hand on his shoulder.

“You know how yesterday we said that we would send out some people to where we think Evelyn is being kept?” Lucy nodded already knowing where this was going. “Well she’s not fucking there.” Natsu’s voice cracked slightly and he prayed that Lucy didn’t notice, but she did.

“I’m truly sorry Natsu,” she whispered and he nodded as he buried his face in his hands. Happy got up and gently nudged his friend’s arm.

“Damn it!” he yelled and a lone tear rolled down his face. He punched in an address into the navigation system.

“Natsu? Are we going to HQ?” Lucy asked, using the term everyone used for Fairy Tail’s skyscraper in downtown Magnolia. Her question was answered when the car rolled to a stop in the garage and Natsu stormed up to his room.

*************************************************

“Lucy, can you come check on Natsu with me? I’m afraid for him…” Happy trailed off and Lucy followed the cat down the hall to Natsu’s room. “Oh geez,” the blue cat shook his head and the door opened when he floated up and put his paw on the scanner. Natsu’s room was dark. The blinds were drawn across the windows and no lights were on. The only light source was coming from behind the bathroom door. “Natsu?” Happy asked. No reply. With a signal from Happy, Lucy pushed the door open and gasped at the sight in front of her. Natsu was sitting on the floor and was pulling razors over his wrists, almost like he was in a daze.

“Natsu!” Lucy cried and she flung herself at him and enveloped him in a hug. Form where she was she waved her hand at Happy who seemed to understand her request. He gathered up all the razors in the room in a bag and flew out, probably to go throw them into the garbage. “Natsu come on,” Lucy started shaking his shoulders trying to bring him back.

“Lucy,” he muttered.

The reaction to hearing bad news regarding his sister was automatic. Natsu was used to it by now. After she disappeared this was how he comforted himself. The pain helped clear his head and in a way it was comforting. Evelyn was suffering and was most likely in pain and Natsu was joining her in spirit. It was also just a form of punishment for himself. He was her older brother. Older brothers don’t let their adoptive sisters get kidnapped. Natsu deserved the pain that he was inflicting upon himself because no one else would do it. His thoughts were distracted when there was a stinging at his wrists.

Natsu lifted his head to see Lucy in front of him cleaning the cuts with a damp cloth covered in soap. “Where do you keep the bandages?” she asked softly and he pointed to a drawer. After she finished acting as his nurse she pulled him into another hug while he cried onto her shoulder.

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Back with another couple of chapters.

The following day, Lucy practically forced a very unenthusiastic Natsu to his car and put in the address to go to Fairy Tail’s headquarters. “Natsu come on,” she sighed. “I know you don’t want to go here but you’ll feel better once you’re there.”

“I’ll take my anger out on Gray,” he muttered and Lucy gave up. That was as good of a response as she’d be getting that day. “Actually, you go on ahead. I’m going to the training room.”

“I’m going with you,” Lucy stated and he growled. “I don’t trust you to be by yourself right now, especially in a room full of weapons.” Natsu was taken aback by her statement. The first time anyone had discovered what he had been doing behind locked doors, all they did was drag him back to the skyscraper. No one had actually bothered to follow-up. Or at least, not thoroughly. They asked him how he was doing but lying was second nature so he didn’t actually have to tell them the truth. They didn’t bother to spend a couple of nights with him to make sure he wasn’t doing anything stupid. But Lucy, who he had technically kidnapped, did. The fierce look in her brown eyes let him know that she wasn’t going to let him be by himself anytime soon.

“Sure,” he mumbled. “Follow me.” Lucy followed him to the elevators that opened up to a large room. The back wall was glass and it overlooked the canal. Light glinted off of the water as the boats, which were still manually operated, created waves, disrupting the stillness of the water. A variety of weapons lined the walls. Almost half of the wall on the right was taken up by different kinds of rifles and guns. The rest of the wall was inside a small, glass-enclosed space complete with different kinds of targets for shooting practice. A punching bag was in the left corner of the room alongside more weapons, including knives, and to Lucy’s surprise, bows and arrows. Along the glass wall were weights and benches.

“This is incredible,” she breathed. “I’m surprised more people aren’t up here.”

“Not everyone in Fairy Tail is fit for fighting,” Natsu told her in a dull voice. “They prefer to do technology, research, communications, security, et cetera. Everyone else only really comes up here to test out new weapons.” He went and grabbed a stuffed dummy from a bin tucked neatly under one of the weapon racks. Natsu grabbed a knife from one of the racks and immediately began mutilating the fabric. _This must be a way for him to let out his anger_ , Lucy thought to herself. It would make sense.

“Won’t you have to clean this up?” Lucy asked, not really wanting to interrupt Natsu.

“No, the fabric can repair itself,” he said shortly before turning his attention back on the dummy now lying ripped in half on the black ground. “If you’re bored you can go practice using guns and rifles if you want. Feel free to use anything you want to.” Lucy nodded at the invitation and made her way over to the racks of guns. With delight, she found the one she had used from her first time in Clover. Upon entering the glass-protected space, she hung a target on the wall and began practicing. Over time she got better before deciding that she had practiced enough.

“Natsu, I’m going down for food,” she called and when he seemed completely uninterested in the fact that food was mentioned she frowned. “Natsu come on. I know you want to stay up here, but you can’t. You’ll feel better downstairs with everyone.” He grunted and threw the knife he was using at the wall where it shook slightly before stilling.

“Let’s go,” he grumbled and unenthusiastically started dragging his feet to the elevator.

“Maybe Mira can make you something spicy as comfort food,” Lucy suggested and Natsu didn’t reply. Even the smooth jazz elevator music didn’t get a reaction out of him. “Hi guys!” Lucy called as she made her way over to the bar, dragging a very reluctant pinkette behind her. “Mira, do you think you could whip up some sort of spicy comfort food for him?” Mirajane took one look at the dejected teenager behind Lucy and nodded.

“I know just what to make,” she chirped and went away into the kitchen to go make the food.

“Hey Natsu are you ok?” Lisanna touched his arm, with concern evident in her bright blue eyes. Natsu didn’t reply. “Natsu?” she waved her hand in front of his face to try and make him say _something_.

“He’s been like this all day,” Lucy told her softly. “I can’t get him to say anything.” Natsu abruptly stood up and stalked over to where Gray and Gajeel were talking to each other. “No, Natsu,” Lucy sighed and she knew what was going to happen. Natsu delivered a very strong punch to Gray’s head and he instantly jumped up.

“What’s your deal?” he yelled. The two launched into a fierce fight. When they stopped to catch their breath both teenagers were covered in bruises. Sometime during their fight Mira stepped out of the kitchen with a plate of chicken drenched in Tabasco sauce and jalapeños.

“Natsu there’s food for you,” Mira called before the two friends started beating each other up again. He cast his dark eyes over to the bar and silently walked over and dug into his food.

“Thank Mavis, he hasn’t eaten anything all day,” Lucy murmured.

“That was good, thanks Mira,” Natsu said before getting up. “Lucy, come on. We’re going back home.” Lucy opened her mouth to say something before shutting it again.

“Ok, let’s go,” she consented softly.

In the car ride home both people were silent. Happy was dozing contentedly in the back seat. “Thank you Lucy,” Natsu said quietly. “For everything today.” Natsu genuinely meant it too. Nobody, at least not since his father disappeared, had ever been so concerned for him. Everybody from Fairy Tail the first couple weeks after Evelyn went missing had sympathized with him but they never thought to ask questions about the scars on, about where they had come from. When they got out of the car Natsu did something Lucy wasn’t expecting. He pulled her into a hug and buried his nose in her hair. “Thank you so much,” he whispered. Lucy didn’t know what else to do besides return the embrace.

“You’re welcome,” she replied softly. Lucy wasn’t used to this feeling, this feeling of being appreciated. “I’m glad I can help.” He pulled back slightly and frowned.

“Why are you crying?” he asked, trying not to panic. “Oh shit, I’m sorry!”

“It’s ok Natsu, really,” she wiped her eyes and looked up at him. “I think it’s a combination of feeling sorry for you but also happy at feeling appreciated.” Lucy gave him a small smile.

“If that bastard,” Lucy assumed it was her father he was referring to, “makes you cry again, I’m killing him.” Like so many other things he said, Lucy didn’t know if he was being serious or not.

When she woke up the next morning, Lucy was unnaturally warm. She shook her head in an attempt to clear it from sleep. She glanced over and shrieked. Lying next to her, snoring softly, was Natsu. “What the hell dude?”

“Oh good morning,” he yawned. “How are you?”

“The better question is what are you doing in here?” she yelled.

“Well it is my house,” he stated. “And besides, I feel safer with you.” Lucy blushed lightly at the words that he seemed to speak so easily. “Not physically, Princess. I think you need me more in that regard,” he snickered before sobering up. “No, I mean emotionally. Just,” he took a deep breath looking almost nervous. “Don’t leave. Please.” Lucy felt a large wave of empathy wash over her. She was feeling the exact same way. After all this had been the first time in nine or ten years where she genuinely felt happy, where she could be herself, where she had people who cared for her, and not just because she was a bargaining chip.

“Just as long as you don’t leave me.”

“Hey guys!” Natsu yelled energetically as he walked out of the elevator onto the lounge and kitchen floor. The two made their way to the bar and sat down at two of the bar stools.

“Well you look happy today, Mira chirped, grabbing a pot of coffee and slid two mugs in front of the newly arrived members.

“Yeah, last night was good,” Mirajane’s eyes glinted with something Lucy didn’t recognize. She raised an eyebrow at Natsu’s words. Natsu seemed unaware of the _other_ interpretation his words had. Lucy blushed.

“N-nothing happened,” she stuttered. Her companion was too busy looking at one of the smart walls to back her up on it.

“But Lucy, you and Natsu slept in the same bed,” Happy reminded smugly.

“Happy stop saying weird stuff,” Natsu said absentmindedly.

“But he loves Lucy,” the Exceed giggled as he drew out the ‘o’ in ‘love’. Lucy’s face was now bright red and stuttering out objections to Happy’s accusations. “Charle!” thankfully, he flew off to go greet Wendy’s Exceed.

“So, is that true?” Levy questioned as she sat down next to Lucy.

“No of course not!” Lucy shrieked. “You can’t believe anything that that cat says. Natsu back me up!” She turned around only to find that he had left. “Where did he go?”

“He said something about going up to the surveillance room,” Gray called from where he was sitting with Juvia and Gajeel. “You can go up and find him but it looked like he wanted to be alone.” Lucy bit her lip. She understood that he needed to be by himself, but the worry of him harming himself overrode that understanding.

“What floor is that on again?”

“The eleventh,” almost everyone in the room called. She nodded and rode up to the floor. Lucy gave a small smile when she heard the smooth jazz playing over the sound system. She tried to imagine Gajeel wearing sunglasses while playing a guitar, maybe wearing a suit. The resulting image made her laugh. When the elevator door slid open she let the scanner read her eyes before letting the door in front of her open.

“Natsu?” she called softly, not wanting to disturb him. “Are you in here?”

“Come here Lucy,” he said from deeper in the room. Once she followed his voice, Lucy found Natsu holding a syringe.

“What the fuck is that?” she yelled and backed away.

“Relax Lucy, it’s just a tracker. Before you say anything let me explain,” when Lucy made no sign of running Natsu launched into an explanation. “This is the same thing that we use for criminals, for the same purpose. Ever since Evie went missing, everybody has one and it’s super important for you because now that everyone knows you’re here and who you’re with, people will come for you. We need to make sure that we can find you if you’re kidnapped.” Lucy bit her lip. “Please, Lucy. For my peace of mind?” With a sigh she tilted her neck and closed her eyes. “This might hurt.” Lucy hissed when she felt the needle prick her neck. “Like Wendy said, there aren’t any side effects and you won’t know that it’s there.”

“How do these work?”

“It was something that Levy and Wendy developed. Each chip has an activation code that you can type into a database and it gives the coordinates.” Lucy nodded, it seemed like a simple technique, yet it was somehow elaborate and sophisticated.

“Is that all you were doing up here?” Lucy ventured and Natsu shook his head.

“I was about to send out a message to our allies if anyone had heard anything about Evelyn,” he admitted as he tapped a message on a keyboard on the interactive map. “Now that I know she’s alive, I’m not going to stop looking for her. Ever.”

“Just don’t overwork yourself on this Natsu,” Lucy advised him.

“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Take care of yourself, if not for yourself then do it for Evelyn, or me, or Fairy Tail. We all want you to be happy.” Natsu gave a small smile and nodded.

“I think I can do that. Do you want to go back down?” Lucy smiled and nodded. When they were in the elevator, Natsu groaned and sank down to the floor.

“Are you ok?” Lucy asked alarmed.

“Shit, I forgot to retake my motion sickness medicine. And the smooth jazz garbage isn’t helping.”

“Was Gajeel that terrible?” Lucy giggled at her friend’s misery. Natsu just glared at her.

“I’m pretty sure only Levy likes his garbage music.” He managed to drag himself up to a sitting position along the elevator wall.

“Better make sure he doesn’t catch you saying that,” Lucy warned with a smile on her face. “I’m pretty sure he’ll kill you.”

“Metal head can try. Even on his best days he can’t beat me,” the pinkette boasted and Lucy nodded.

“Of course, I apologize.” In return, Natsu just narrowed his eyes at her. When the elevator rolled to a stop Natsu crawled out of the elevator like it was on fire. He just stayed still on the ground praising the gods that he was back on a floor that didn’t move.

“Dumbass, did you forget to take your motion sickness medicine,” Gray taunted and that got Natsu on his feet in no time.

“What did you call me Freezer Burn?” he yelled back. Knowing that a fight was impending, Lucy sat back down next to Levy.

            “So Levy, Natsu told me that Gajeel is into jazz music,” Lucy started a conversation and the other girls at the bar laughed.

            “If you can even consider him a musician,” Cana snickered as she looked up from her bottle of some form of alcohol. “He’s tone deaf. Always was and always will be.”

            “He’s just…enthusiastic,” Levy defended and Cana laughed. “And it’s not like he ever took lessons. His music seems ok to me.”

            “Of course it would,” Mirajane leaned over and rested her elbows on the counter. “I think all of us know you happen to have a crush on a certain someone who just so happens to like jazz music.” Levy’s face turned bright red and almost choked on the tea she was drinking.

            “That’s not true!” she spluttered in protest. “We’ve just been doing more missions together because Team Shadowgear needs his help. That’s it I swear!” Nobody seemed to buy it because there were several ‘ok whatever you say,’ from the Strauss sisters and Cana.

            “Speaking of jazz,” Lisanna said and gestured over to the opposite wall. Gajeel was sitting down on a chair and, just like Lucy imagined, wearing sunglasses and a fedora.

            “Oh for fuck’s sake not this shit again!” Natsu groaned and he got hit in the face with Gajeel’s hat.

            “Who wants to hear my new song?” the alleged jazz musician asked into a microphone. There were a chorus of boos but he didn’t seem deterred. He start strumming his guitar and singing and Lucy cringed. Cana hadn’t been lying when she said that he was tone deaf.

            “I need more booze for this,” the alcoholic muttered and walked behind the bar to grab a bottle of what looked like sake. Natsu had his hands over his ears and several others followed suit. Most of his audience was trying to ignore him but Levy was clapping enthusiastically when his song was over.

            “That’s all for today,” Gajeel announced as he stood up.

            “Thank Mavis,” Gray sighed as he dragged himself over to the bar.

            “Your clothes Gray,” Cana raised an eyebrow and Gray looked down to see his shirt missing.

            “Damn it not again!”

            “Ha stripper king,” Natsu smirked and Gray looked ready to punch him in the face.

            “Fight me pyro!”

            “Not until you put some clothes on,” Natsu retorted with good humor. “Go up to the clothes room, there’s more than enough shit there.”

            “The clothes room?” Lucy questioned when the others chuckled at his response.

            “Makarov had the foresight to create a room purely for clothes, disguises, and makeup. Most of the time though, Gray just uses it to replace clothes that he lost,” Lisanna explained. “It’s a great idea, especially when we have visitors.”

            “That was humiliating,” Erza had now walked over to join their group. “Can I have some strawberry cake while I’m here Mirajane?”

            “Of course,” she answered and disappeared into the kitchen.

            “We had an official from, I believe it was Twilight Ogre, and everything was going fine until Gray arrived with nothing but his underwear on.” Natsu burst out laughing.

            “I remember that! It was hilarious to watch Gramps beat him up afterwards!”

            “Shut up Natsu! It was a one time thing alright?” Gray yelled, now wearing a shirt.

            “Yeah right, it only happened about three other times,” Cana reminded him and Gray growled in frustration.

            “Fuck all of you,” he ground out before stalking away.

            “Well that went well,” Mira commented when she arrived back with strawberry cake. She was about to say something else but the smart wall started ringing, saying that someone wanted a video chat. Natsu nodded and someone swiped the accept button and a black video filled the screen.

            “Hello Fairy Tail.” It was Jellal. Lucy was still getting accustomed to the idea that he wasn’t the insane, power-hungry maniac that the news and high society made him out to be. At least, he wasn’t anymore. “Natsu, Erik heard that there was something _bad_ happening in Era and since we can’t go there, we were hoping you could.”

            “We’ll do it, of course we will,” Natsu accepted immediately. “Just send me the information and we’ll go there tomorrow.”

            “Excellent,” he nodded and there were laughs and someone asking if Jellal had seen his _girlfriend_ which, Lucy assumed, meant Erza.

            “Karen that’s enough,” he ordered but there were still giggles and a man’s voice said that Jellal was too scared to actually ask her out. Both Jellal and Erza turned red at that statement. Whether it was from embarrassment or anger, Lucy couldn’t tell. “Well that’s that. I’ll be going now. Goodbye,” and the screen went black.

            “Well then. Lucy, Erza, Gray, Wendy,” he looked at each of them. “We’ll leave tomorrow so get here at eight am sharp. Understood?”

            “But you don’t know what or who’s going to be there,” Levy frowned. “Shouldn’t you take more people?”

            “We’ll call for backup if we need it,” Natsu reassured her. “Don’t worry we’ll take as many weapons and as much technology as we can. On another note, I do want you, Gajeel, and Juvia coming up with us to go over the information that Jellal sent us.”

            “You’re nervous?” Gajeel asked Levy as they walked to the elevators.

            “Something doesn’t seem right,” she murmured. “I have a bad feeling about this.”


	10. Chapter 10

The next day Natsu, Lucy, Happy, Charle, Wendy, Gray, and Erza were all piled in one of Fairy Tail’s cars because Natsu didn’t want to risk ruining his. Music was blaring from the sound system as green fields flew past them outside. Not that you could actually see that the grass was green, the windows were too dark.

            “Should we plan out what we’re going to do when we get to Era?” Lucy questioned to the group of teens who were doing anything but looking serious. Gray and Natsu were playing some sort of game and were screaming and yelling at each other every couple of minutes. Erza was ignoring them eating strawberry cake. Happy was talking to Charle while Wendy was talking with Lucy.

            “Nah, when we get there we’ll just do an observation of the city,” Natsu answered, looking up from the tablet he and Gray were leaning over.

            “We’re going to the place where we’re staying and from there I can tap into all of the security cameras and shit all over the city. No big deal,” Gray shrugged.

            “Where are we staying Gray?” Wendy asked before his attention was back to whatever game he was playing with Natsu.

            “Gramps has some place near the city that he told me we can use,” Gray answered. “I’ve never been there before so I don’t where it is.”

            “I’ve been there before,” Erza threw in. “It’s on the ocean so maybe a twenty minute drive into the city. It’s beautiful there.”

            “Haha! I beat you Ice Cube!” Natsu cackled and Gray hit the car’s wall.

            “Fuck you Pyro! I was distracted so that shouldn’t count!”

            “Then you shouldn’t have been distracted!” Natsu yelled back. Erza had a tick mark on her forehead from frustration.

            “If you don’t stop I’m kicking you both out of the car and you can walk the rest of the way.”

            “Sorry ma’am,” they chorused. When she stopped looking at them the two frenemies glared at each other. While the car continued driving, Lucy had her face pressed up to the glass, trying to take in as much as possible through the tinted glass.

            “So Lucy, you’ve never been to Era before?” Wendy asked as she looked up from her tablet.

            “I might have been to meet with suitors,” the distaste in her voice was obvious. “But if I was, there wasn’t really an opportunity to explore and get to see everything.” She froze where she was and slowly seemed to melt into the seat.

            “Lucy?” Gray questioned as he looked up at his terrified friend.

            “Damn it,” she swore softly. “The person my father wanted me to marry lives in Era. I completely forgot.”

            “It’s ok Lucy,” Natsu drawled as he rested his head on his seat. “What are the odds of meeting him right?”

            “Right,” she agreed nervously. Natsu was right, Era had over a million people. The odds of meeting the person she was supposed to marry were slim to none. Right?

           

            “Holy shit!” Natsu exclaimed as Makarov’s mansion in Era came into view. Natsu’s reaction was appropriate in Lucy’s opinion. Like Natsu’s house, the building was geometric and white and surrounded with green bushes and trees. Four steps lead up to a clear glass gate with a patio-like area behind it.

            “If you think this is impressive, you still need to see his mountain retreat and the beach house on Tenrou Island,” Erza said dryly. “Make yourselves at home. Gray, can you start hacking into the city interface?” Gray nodded as he walked up the stone steps to the gate. When he touched it, he yelped.

            “It’s fucking electrified!” Lucy bit her lip to fight back laughter.

            “This house is one of Fairy Tail’s outposts, did you really think it would be defenseless?” the blonde questioned with an arched eyebrow. Gray glared at her while Natsu laughed and Wendy giggled.

            “It’s tied into the security system we have at headquarters so the eyescanner should work for all of you.” Gray rolled his eye but bent down to let the scanner flash a green light in his eye. Silently, the gates swung open and closed just as quickly.

            “Really?” Natsu sighed as he copied Gray’s actions. The gate would only allow one person to pass through at a time. “This is going to be inconvenient.”

            “Inconvenient or not it is necessary for keeping this building and whoever is in it safe,” Erza chastised. “I wouldn’t whine about it if I were you.” Natsu looked like he was about to retort but seemed to think better of it because he let it slide.

            “This is protected too?” Gray asked as his hand jerked away from the door handle, most likely from being shocked again.

            “If it shocked you, it obviously is Gray,” Wendy pointed out with a teasing smile on her face. The black-haired teenager’s eye twitched and he turned to glare at her but Natsu gave him a look that seemed to say ‘if you talk back to her you die.’ Much to the boys’ chagrin, Happy and Charle just flew over the gate.

            “Don’t you wish you could fly now?” Happy teased and Natsu scowled in reply.

            “Shut up Happy,” he grumbled. “Nobody likes a showoff.” When they stepped inside the house everyone gasped. White rugs covered areas of the dark brown floor with dark chairs with white cushions on top. The tables were all dark but small green plants in white containers stood out. A large pyramid skylight was centered over the room casting sunlight over everything. Sunlight was also streaming in through the retractable glass door that led out to a deck with more chairs and potted plants. Without a shadow of doubt, Lucy knew that there was probably a pool built in as well.

            “Everyone go pick out rooms,” Erza ordered. “And Gray, hack into the city system please? I don’t want to ask again.” Gray opened his mouth to argue, to say that Erza hadn’t given him time to hack into the system because he was busy being electrocuted by a gate. Lucy wandered around downstairs until she walked into a room she fell in love with. It was simple, there wasn’t anything unique about it, but that just made her love it more. Seeing something so minimal was refreshing from the extravagance she had grown up with and the complicated room she had grown used to having at Natsu’s mansion. A bed was centered along the right wall, next to a sliding glass door that led out to the deck. The blankets were white, but there was a salmon pink blanket folded at the foot of the bed. There was a small bookshelf in what Lucy decided would be her reading nook and a laptop resting on a glass desk.

            “Sweet Lucy, I have the room next to yours!” Natsu cheered as he saw her step onto the deck. “This house is amazing isn’t it?” he asked as he looked at the trees and grass stretching beyond the backyard.

            “It is beautiful,” Lucy agreed. “What does your room look like?” Natsu grabbed her hand and guided him toward his room, even though she didn’t need the guidance. His room was similar to hers. They had the same white bedspread except a charcoal gray blanket was thrown over his instead of pink. Two black and glass chairs were facing the door that lead outside, with a small table between them.

            “What’s up Lucy?” Natsu questioned as Lucy sat down on the bed and gave a sad smile.

            “I can’t help but feel jealous,” she admitted, not making eye contact. “You all grew up surrounded by amazing people and living in places like this,” she gestured to the room around her. “While I was stuck inside a place far more sophisticated but seemed like a jail. I would have preferred this life so much more.”

            “But that means that you can appreciate it more than you would have before,” Natsu reminded. “And besides, aren’t you glad it worked out this way? You might never have even run into us and you wouldn’t be with Fairy Tail right now.”

            “Maybe so, yeah,” she agreed. “I can’t help but worry that that one suitor will find me here.” Natsu sighed and placed a hand on her head, like he had when they were talking with her father.

            “I won’t let them take you back to your old life. You have a new family; you don’t _belong_ to that world anymore. This one’s more dangerous but doesn’t that make it fun?” He gave her a blinding grin and she couldn’t help but return the expression. He was right, like he almost always was. It was a reminder that she really did come to love Fairy Tail; while she had only known them for a couple of weeks, they felt more like family than her father ever had. “C’mon, let’s go see if there’s food here, I’m hungry as hell.”

            When they arrived in the kitchen, Gray already seemed to have made it his headquarters. A hologram was hovering over the small glass table near the sliding door. On the display, seemed to be hundreds of camera feeds from all over the city and he had tapped into every computer system to scan for hacking. “I’ve set it up so if there’s any suspicious activity it’ll sound an alarm,” Gray was telling Erza who was breathing down his neck as he worked.

            “And what if it scares us to death and gives us a heart attack?” Natsu snipped from his location by the refrigerator as he looked through it for something to eat.

            “We have Wendy dumbass,” Gray sneered back. “She can heal us. Right, Wendy?”

            “What kind of person answers confidently and then has to get their answer confirmed?” the pinkette taunted. “Clearly you’re less smart than I am. I don’t have that kind of doubt.” Gray seemed to bristle at the comment and stood up to face his rival/best friend.

            “Listen, if you have a problem with me then fucking say it to my face,” Gray growled and Erza cleared her throat loudly to alert the others of her presence, which they seemed to have forgotten.

            “We weren’t fighting Erza, it was just some banter,” Natsu scrambled for excuses and thankfully, came up with them.

            “All in good fun right buddy?” Gray asked as he and Natsu sweatdropped.

            “O-of course good buddy,” Natsu replied with a fake smile.

            “Good.” Seemingly satisfied with their resolved conflict, she wandered away, probably to go find her room that was somewhere in the mansion.

            “Gods, what a nightmare,” Natsu moaned as he dropped his face on the island countertop.

            ‘Tell me about it,” Gray muttered as he continued to monitor all of the information going through the hologram.

            “Why do you use holograms so much? Wouldn’t it be easier to have a tablet?” Lucy asked. It was something that had never occurred to her before. She rarely saw any of them use tablets for professional work; everyone seemed to have a hologram projector that was the size of a compact mirror.

            “First of all it looks cooler,” Natsu answered with a small smile. “Second of all, we don’t deal with glitches as often. And third of all because it’s easier to see everything at once, so we don’t need to switch apps.”

            “It was awful,” Gray commented, his eyes never leaving the hologram feed. “So many apps crashed and lost data, really meaningful data. We only recovered it because Freed and Hibiki are master hackers so they could find a way to retrieve it.”

            “I’m hungry,” Wendy whined as she wandered into the kitchen. “Natsu what do we have?”

            “Plenty of stuff to make things out of, I just can’t cook. I always set everything on fire,” he mumbled, dejected and hopeless at the prospect of not eating food.

            “I can make something for you if you want,” Lucy offered and Natsu’s jaw dropped. “What? I wanted to learn how to cook so our chef taught me.”

            “Thank you goddess Lucy!” Happy cried as he flew into her arms.

            “What are you going to make?” Charle asked as she walked into the kitchen.

            “That depends, what do we have?” Lucy asked as she wandered to the wall with cabinets and drawers. “Wendy can you check the freezer to see if there’s any chicken or steak?”

            “Um, Lucy? I don’t see anything here,” Wendy told her as she pulled her head out of the freezing air. “Maybe we should just go out for dinner?”

            “That sounds great!” Natsu yelled. “Lets go! There’s an 8 Island branch here so we can eat there. Then since this is Lucy’s first time here, we can go look around!”

            “I have to stay here though,” Gray protested, his eyes leaving the feed for the first time that afternoon.

            “Don’t you have a phone?” Wendy asked and the black-haired teen groaned.

            “It’s probably fine if we leave him here,” Natsu observed loudly. “We’d just have to bail his ass out of jail for walking around with no clothes on.” Wendy and Lucy laughed while Erza gave him a threatening glare.

            “Fuck you Dragneel,” Gray growled and Natsu shrugged.

            “Your loss, we’ll tell you all about the amazing food we had and how beautiful Era is at night while you stay here locked up in the house,” the pinkette shrugged as the four walked out the door.

            “Damn it,” Gray muttered as he shut down the hologram and followed them out the door. “Fuck you Dragneel,” he repeated as they all got in the car.

            “Gray, we will go out and we will have a good time,” Erza commanded and Gray gulped and nodded. “We all have weapons correct?” Lucy paled at the question. While she understood the logic, the idea of it made her uneasy.

            “Lucy, you’ll be with me so you won’t need one,” Natsu said as he looked out the window. The closer they got to the city, the more cluttered the streets seemed to become. Buildings were crowded together and more people were walking on the sidewalks, talking into phones with holograms above the screen or chatting loudly with friends.

            “You’d think since the assembly for the government is here it would be more organized,” Erza observed, almost sounding annoyed. “I’ve never liked Era.”

            “Well yeah, didn’t you once get in trouble for property damage, especially since it was for a smaller local government building?” Wendy asked and Erza sighed.

            “I think it was only because of Jellal that I got off so easily,” Erza mused. “He was still infiltrating the government. Look how well that turned out.”

            “Wait, why was he infiltrating the government?” Lucy pressed, not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer. Erza sighed once again.

            “He heard a rumor that someone was making deals to turn a blind eye to the crime and drug rings so he went to infiltrate with Ultear. Both of them got sent to prison but Meredy, Erick, and Sorano broke them out. You probably heard about it, although from a different point of view.” That was true. Lucy had heard about how the infiltration was to get information and throw all of Fiore into chaos. But now, she realized, it just depended on which side you were on. Of course it would mean chaos for her father and his allies, but it meant victory for Fairy Tail and their allied gangs. She supposed that now she was on Fairy Tail’s side. Natsu made that clear when they had met with her father.

            “Lucy where does this would-be suitor live?” Gray asked, his eyes focused on the tablet in his hands.

            “I think some sort of city mansion or penthouse,” Lucy wracked her brain trying to remember what she knew but she was drawing a blank. “His name was, Everlue, I think?” Automatically everyone tensed.

            “Bastard,” Natsu growled and no one countered him. “That asshole tricked us. We did a favor for him but he didn’t pay us back. Hell he gave all of the information he knew to your father!”

            “I’m glad you don’t have to marry him,” Charle shuddered at the thought. “What a creep.”

            “And he didn’t like fish,” Happy added. “What kind of person doesn’t like fish?”                   

            “Evie never liked them,” Natsu reminisced. “She hated them.”

            “Well she’s weird like Lucy, so it doesn’t count right?”

            “How am _I_ weird cat?” Lucy yelled. “I’m not blue and I’m not a talking cat!”

            “Natsu, Lucy’s going to eat me,” Happy wailed and flew into Natsu’s lap. The pinkette gave Lucy an apologetic but she just glared, those brown eyes becoming cold and threatening. She clearly had been spending too much time with Erza. The car slowly rolled to a stop, in the middle of the street, and Natsu shouted in frustration.

            “This piece of garbage!” he ranted. “The least it could have done was pull over to the side of the road to park but _no_ that would’ve been too easy. I’m going to kill Makarov for giving us these shitty cars who can’t do anything right. I want a fucking refund because this was the biggest waste of money-“ he only shut up when Erza whacked his skull.

            “Natsu that’s enough,” she ordered sternly. “You should be grateful that Makarov has been generous enough to buy us the best technology available.” Natsu muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘best technology my ass’ but if Erza heard him, she ignored it.

            “Are we all going to get dinner together? Because Happy and I already know where we want to go,” Natsu asked.

            “Well I don’t want to go with you,” Gray announced. “I’m going to a sushi restaurant do you want to come with me Wendy?”

            “Um, sure,” Natsu’s little cousin replied. “If that’s okay with you?” she directed the question to her cousin who sighed.

            “Go for it,” Natsu muttered. “Lucy and I can have fun by ourselves.”

            “That’s good,” Erza nodded. “I was planning on visiting Mermaid Heel and catching up with Millianna and Kagura. It’s been a while since I’ve seen them.”

            “Take care of my sister Ice Prick,” Natsu warned. “Or there will be hell to pay.”

            “Cool it moron, like I’m going to let anything happen to her,” Gray snapped. “Anyway we’re here. All of us have our network communicators right?” Everyone nodded. Lucy didn’t though, she needed to keep nagging Natsu if she ever wanted to get one.

            “Sweet, let’s go then!” Natsu exclaimed. He grabbed Lucy’s hand and dragged her out of the car. “You’re going to love Era.” The sun was still out when they got out of the car and Natsu gave Lucy a moment to take in where they were. A domed building was in the distance, the gold metal of the dome was glinting in the late afternoon sun. Similar to the more historic section of Magnolia, the streets were cobblestones that were now flat after being worn down century after century. People were walking on the sidewalks yammering into their phones. Sirens started coming down the street and Lucy jumped at the noise.

            “Era police doing what they do best,” Gray noted as he stood next to them to watch the police car race past. The sarcasm in his voice was obvious. “You’d think the city where they hold assemblies for the government would be more orderly. Mermaid Heel is one of the only reasons why this city isn’t overrun with criminals.”

            “Agreed,” Erza stated. “I’ll go look for Kagrua, if there’s a police chase she won’t be far behind.”

            “Well we should get out of here before cops show up,” Natsu said. “They wouldn’t hesitate to try and throw us into jail for bullshit charges.”

            “Charges like what?” Lucy asked as they walked on the sidewalks, weaving through crowds of people.

            “Property damage, incapacitating police officers, stuff like that,” Natsu casually listed. “They all deserved it anyway.”

            “Fish!” Happy broke in and he zoomed to a restaurant. “C’mon Natsu let’s eat here!” The restaurant was small and the word ‘ember’ was displayed above the door in bright red.

            “Oh, I’ve heard this place is good,” Natsu looked like a child on Christmas. “They cook a lot of their food with fire so it’s all smoked. Sting told me about it.”

            “Do you think you could get us one of those private rooms this time Natsu?” Happy asked and Natsu tilted his head as the three walked through the door.

            “Table for three?” a waitress asked and then she realized who was standing in front of her. “Natsu D-Dragneel, what a surprise to see you.” She sounded nervous. “It’s an honor to have you here.”

            “Do you think you could get us a private room?” he requested, ignoring the woman’s floundering.

            “Of course. Are the two of you on a date?”

            “What?” Lucy shrieked, while Natsu smirked.

            “Yeah, it’s her first time in Era and I’ve heard that this restaurant is amazing,” Natsu winked at Lucy and she tried not to strangle him in the middle of the restaurant.

            “Follow me then.” She gestured for the three to follow her. Happy was lazily flying next to Natsu’s head, wisely holding his tongue so as not to freak the poor woman out. The waitress lead them to a door that opened into a small room with a table for two and a large window looking out to a garden with a fountain. “The menus are on the screens in the table. Please enjoy your meal.” With a small bow of her head she left the room.

            “I’m your date?” Lucy asked with a raised eyebrow. Natsu just blushed.

            “It was convenient,” he shrugged. “Besides, do you know how many girls would kill you to be in your place?” He gave her a smile and Lucy shook her head.

            “I think girls are delusional,” Lucy rolled her eyes. “Anyone who’d want to go out with you is stupid.”

            “Suit yourself Princess. Now are you going to order?”

 

 


	11. Chapter 11

When Natsu and Lucy had finished their dinner the two strolled out into the streets, temporarily blinded by the setting sun. Lucy shielded her eyes and turned to Natsu. “What is there to see here?”   
“Come with me, I know a place,” was all her companion said before grabbing her hand and weaving through the throngs of people on the sidewalk. “It’s a bit out of the way, but I think you’ll like it.” No matter what she tried, Natsu refused to tell her more about their mysterious location. “Nope, I’m not saying a word until we get there,” he said with a final tone in his voice that made Lucy drop the subject. Instead her guide regaled her with stories of earlier jobs here. Like he had listed earlier, they involved a fair amount of property damage, which she was starting to become accustomed to. Without any warning, Natsu stopped short in front of her.   
“Natsu what-“ she was cut off when his hand covered her mouth.   
“Be quiet,” he whispered. Their eyes met and Lucy shivered from the intensity they held. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her into an alley.   
“What’s wrong Natsu?” Happy asked quietly. He didn’t have to wait long for an answer.  
“Did you see a girl, in her late teens, with blonde hair around here?” barked a police officer and the civilian he had stopped shook his head, terrified. Lucy felt like an ice cube was sliding down her spine. There were plenty of blondes in Era, she tried to reason with herself, that they could be looking for someone else.  
“Maybe if we hear her name we can help you,” the man offered and the officer seemed to think that it was a reasonable request.   
“Her name is Lucy Heartfilia, and she’s a threat to the city.” Lucy gasped loudly, but not loud enough for the policeman to hear her. However, as Lucy stood in the alley with Natsu, the cop glanced at it from the corner of his eye and spotted them.   
“Shit,” Natsu swore softly. Before Lucy could blink, Natsu had her pressed up against the wall, leaving no space between them. Instinctively her face was coated in a dark shade of red. “Be still,” he instructed softly. “If you don’t move, he shouldn’t be able to see us; these clothes can be camouflage.” For a moment, Lucy felt safe. Something about his above-average temperature and how she could feel every defined muscle made her feel protected. The cop narrowed his eyes and pulled out a device that started beeping immediately.   
“Lahar, I found the Heartfilia girl and she’s with Salamander.” They couldn’t hear the words but when the policeman started for them Natsu swore again.   
“Of course he has a fucking thermal detector! Change of plans. You can’t run fast enough so I’m just gonna carry you.” With no warning he scooped her up in his arms. Lucy shrieked and automatically wrapped her arms around his neck.  
“Put me down!” she demanded but Natsu kept running never looking back. Happy was flying next to them and Natsu said something into his communicator but Lucy couldn’t hear what it was. Natsu skittered to a stop when he reached a square where they found themselves surrounded.   
“Fuck!” he shouted and let Lucy down. “Happy, take Lucy and get her to the car. I can deal with these guys.”   
“No Natsu I’m not leaving without you!” Lucy argued back making her friend’s eye twitch.   
“Happy,” Natsu gestured vaguely with his hands.   
“Aye sir.” The cat grabbed Lucy’s shirt in between his paws and lifted them off the ground.   
“Dragneel come back to us in one piece!” Lucy yelled over the wind. All she saw was a megawatt grin and joyous laughter.   
“Let him do what he does best,” Happy advised her. “He’s been in worse situations than this. He’s probably having fun.”   
Natsu knew how Lucy felt, wanting to stay with her friends and fight, but he wasn’t willing to risk her safety. A dozen Era ‘knights’, as they called themselves, were positioned at each entrance to the square. “Hey guys, how’s it going?” Natsu asked cheerfully as if he was meeting up with old friends. “Long time no see! I see Era is beautifully managed as always.” The sarcasm in his words didn’t go unnoticed. He was pleased to see that many of them bristled at the underhand insult to how they were protecting the city. “How’s Lahar doing?”   
“Be quiet Salamander,” one of the leaders sneered. “We can’t run around blowing up buildings based off of rumors that we’ve heard from questionable sources.”   
“And yet, we’re the ones putting criminals in jail,” Natsu countered with a smug grin on his face. “All I see are cars with sirens with people inside them getting nothing accomplished. These, ‘questionable sources’ you speak of were kind enough to inform me that there was a lot of black market action here.” There were a combination of growls and hisses at the implication behind Natsu’s words. “Scandalous I know; especially because the people turning a blind eye to the drug rings that are established are right in front of me. There were other things mentioned of course, but I won’t tell them to you.” The sneers and scowls on everyone’s face made Natsu grin in excitement.   
“What did you do with the Heartfilia girl?” one of the people who looked like he was in charge asked.   
“I’m not forcing her to do anything she doesn’t want to.” They didn’t have to know that he had basically forced her to join Fairy Tail, she was happier with them anyway. “Tell me, did her father tell you about this? That she ran away from home?”   
“We don’t have to tell you anything brat,” one of the guards spat. “You still need to be brought to court for the fire that you caused two years ago and you need to be sentenced for helping those two criminals infiltrate our government.”   
“The only reason why we had to infiltrate the government was because everyone here’s too caught up in their greed so it comes to ‘brats’ like us to take care of everything! If we were in charge of the city, all of you would be fired.” He flashed a slightly sadistic grin. “Like this!” He grabbed his rapid-fire gun and shot flames at the ground in front of a squadron leader’s feet.   
From up above, Era looked so peaceful. Or it would have if the city streets weren’t flooded with law enforcement squads that looked like ants from up in the sky. A green flare signal was shot up into the sky and Happy angled himself toward it. “That color means that Erza or Gray are there at the car. Hopefully it’s both.”   
“How will Natsu get back?” Lucy asked.  
“Normally he just steals cars,” Happy replied nonchalantly. For some reason, Lucy wasn’t particularly surprised. Somewhere behind them, they heard an explosion and Happy laughed. “That’s probably Natsu, he can make anything explode.” If Lucy didn’t know any better he sounded proud.   
“That’s why they call him Salamander then,” Lucy realized. “Because he’s a pyromaniac.”   
“Yep,” Happy chirped in reply. “Erza! Gray!” he called when they reached the location where the flare was shot from.   
“Thank goodness you’re ok.” Erza rushed over immediately. “Where’s Natsu?”   
“We had to leave him behind but he was surrounded by Era police officers,” Lucy explained. “We heard an explosion go off though so he must be doing ok.”   
“I want to go back and help him,” Wendy said from where she was next to Gray.   
“We can’t. Cops will show up here any minute too. Erza, we need to get going. Natsu can figure out a way to get back to us; we’ve been in these situations before.”   
“What the hell is that?” Erza asked as a bright light was shining down on them from a helicopter.   
“What kind of stunts did you pull to make Era officials hate you this much?” Lucy yelled over the noise of whirring chopper blades.   
“Well we did help Jellal and Ultear infiltrate the council,” Wendy recalled, “they couldn’t have appreciated it that much. Then there’s also the fact that Natsu blew up one of their weapon warehouses which also had a stash of drugs hidden in it.” Lucy hit her hand against her forehead.   
“If you don’t surrender yourselves, or at least the Heartfilia girl, we’ll be forced to take action,” a loud, magnified voice said from the helicopter.   
“Lahar,” Gray snarled and glared up at the aircraft. “Get in guys, we’re getting out of here. I hate leaving Natsu behind, but most of their focus will be on us. Lucy come on!” Gray yanked her into the car and he slid into the driver’s seat. “Hold on guys, I’m driving this thing and it’s not going to be an easy ride.”   
“What does he mean by that?” Lucy asked to no one in particular.   
“You’ll find out soon,” Wendy said, her face a pale shade of green. “I hate motion-sickness.”   
“Don’t you have that troia medicine with you?” Erza asked and Wendy perked up. “I think it’s here in the front.” As Erza reached to get it from the glove compartment the car lurched to the side as Gray made a fast turn. Completely unperturbed, Erza handed the bottle to Wendy.   
“Thank you Erza,” Wendy said and she gulped it down, without any water. The timing was perfect because Gray floored the accelerator.   
“How fast can this thing go?” Lucy managed to say after a particularly sharp turn.   
“Sawyer, you might better know him better as Racer, from Crime Sorciere rigged it so it can hit 200 mph,” Erza informed her. “He’s great at mechanics.”   
“That’s good to know,” Lucy squeaked. “Can I have some of that troia stuff too?” Wendy handed her the bottle as she turned to look behind them.   
“Damn, Gray they’re gaining on us!” she cried.   
“How the fuck is that possible?” he yelled. He flicked a switch on the dashboard and an automated female voice said “stealth mode activated.”   
“What does stealth mode do?” Lucy asked.   
“When Sawyer started screwing around with our cars, he equipped some sort of stealth thing so we’re essentially invisible. Only our allies have this because Jellal isn’t going to sell this to anyone else.” Wendy let out a pent-up breath.   
“It seems like they’re going away,” Charle sighed in relief. “Could they detect us with a thermal scanner?” she asked as an afterthought.   
“No, this car runs off of electricity so no heat is produced,” Gray answered. “We’ll keep driving for a little bit longer just to make sure we’re not being followed. I think the helicopter went away too. Erza can you call Flame Brain to make sure he’s ok?” To Lucy’s frustration, she could only hear Erza’s side of the conversation.   
“Natsu? Yes we’re safe. Where are you? Still? Be careful. Alright goodbye.”   
“Is he alright?” Charle asked and Erza shrugged her shoulders.   
“It’s hard to stay with him. He’s still trying to get out of the city limits but he’s close to leaving. He found a car, by the way.”   
“That’s a relief.” Lucy let herself relax.   
“You like him,” Happy teased.   
“Shut it cat, or you’re going to get hurt,” Lucy threatened, glaring at the blue exceed.   
Lucy had never been so relieved to reach their house. Much to her dismay however, the driveway was empty. After their eyes were scanned, they entered the house the group dispersed to go to their own rooms. Lucy made a beeline for the bathroom to take a bath and try to relax. She tried to relax, really she did, but two thoughts were circulating in her mind. Where was Natsu and who found out that she would be in Era?   
It was relatively late when she finally heard the front door click open. Everyone was already asleep, except for her. She padded out into the hallway to see Natsu covered in soot, scrapes, and bruises, but grinning at her nonetheless. “Hi Lucy! Is everyone asleep already?”  
“Already? Natsu it’s nearly midnight!” Lucy shrieked, yet softly enough to not wake up the whole house. After all, an Erza who had a disturbed nights sleep was not a fun Erza to deal with.   
“I’m sorry it took so long, Era police are the worst. Who cares if I did blow up some shit?” He seemed genuinely upset about something and Lucy had a feeling it wasn’t just because of property damage.   
“What’s wrong Natsu?” she asked quietly and he looked at her.   
“Can I shower first?” Lucy nodded and he slipped into the bathroom she had previously been in. Lucy was on edge though. Levy had pulled her aside and told her that something was wrong with the situation. She said she couldn’t explain what it was, just that she didn’t like it that much. Lucy decided that, to calm herself down, she would make a cup of tea. She decided to make one for Natsu too; he probably needed it. She was cautiously sipping the tea when Natsu walked back into the kitchen wearing sweats and a gray sweatshirt.  
“Do you want some?”   
He sighed and collapsed on the barstool next to her. “Yeah, that would be great, thank you Lucy.” Natsu was massaging his temples when Lucy set the mug down in front of him.   
“So what happened?” Lucy prodded, turning to face her friend who looked way too exhausted for someone his age.   
“First things first, I’m sure you’ve figured this out by now, but we have a traitor in Fairy Tail. That’s the only way the Era ‘Knights’ Squad could’ve known that you’d be here. Anything that could’ve been used for intel is protected by the best security in Fiore and there wasn’t a hacker.”   
“Do you have any idea who it might be?” Natsu just shook his head.   
“Why would anyone want to do this?” he hit the island, causing the mug of tea to rattle. “You haven’t done anything! You’re completely innocent!”   
“Natsu,” she murmured. “It’s ok; you said you expected this didn’t you? And besides, my father probably told all of his friends about me running away.” She paused for a minute and Natsu nursed his cup of tea. “I’m sorry.” Natsu seemed to do a double take.   
“What are you apologizing for? You haven’t done anything!”   
“I should’ve just gone back to my father when we met him, it would’ve saved you all this trouble.” In a flash, Natsu grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to make eye contact.   
“Don’t say that. You’re worth it, of course you are. Lucy, I swear on my honor as a member of Fairy Tail, I will never let you go back there. As long as you’re with me you’re safe.”   
“What else is there?” Lucy asked gently and Natsu took a sip of his tea. He buried his face in his hands.   
“I don’t know whether to believe his words or not,” Natsu murmured, mostly talking to himself though. “I heard something over their communicator.” Sensing his inner turmoil Lucy placed her hand over his that was curled into a fist. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I heard someone say that a ‘prisoner’ was acting up and…”he trailed off and lifted his head out of his hands to look at her. The joy that was in his face when he entered the house was gone replaced by sorrow. He sighed again and he closed his eyes. “Do you think it’s possible that it’s Evelyn?”   
“I don’t know,” Lucy answered softly. “But Natsu,” he looked at her when she said his name, “we’ll find her. You know we will.”   
“But what if it’s too late?”   
“Damn it Natsu!” Lucy yelled. “What happened to being hopeful; you know we’ll find her!”   
“What matters is that if we find her, and it’s too late, and she’s dead there’s nothing we can do about it!” he argued back as a tear slid down his face. “I can’t lose another family member Lucy!” Her heart broke when his voice cracked. Lucy slid off of her barstool and gave Natsu a tight hug. He seemed startled before wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face in her shoulder.   
“Natsu,” Lucy said gently, like she was talking to a child. “We’ll find her. I’ll help you look no matter how long it takes.” They remained like that until Natsu stopped crying. “C’mon, do you want to sleep in my room?” Her friend looked up at her face. If he hadn’t been an emotional mess, he would have looked surprised.   
“Why?”   
“I don’t want you to be by yourself.” Natsu wasn’t an idiot; he knew she was thinking about how the last time something like this had happened she had found him slicing his skin open with razors.   
“Ok,” he consented softly. He padded down the hall and into her room while she rinsed the mugs in the sink and left them there until the morning. Lucy took a deep breath before following him into the room. She could see Natsu’s silhouette against the window, what he was looking at Lucy had no idea but she walked up to him and tugged on his hand.   
“C’mon Natsu, let’s go to sleep.” He obeyed and lay down next to her. “Everything will be better tomorrow.” Natsu wanted to believe her so, so much. But he couldn’t. Still, he had a gut feeling that he would be seeing the bastards who kidnapped his sister soon, but he tried to take Lucy’s advice and go to sleep. Natsu couldn’t explain why he draped his arm over her waist but, now that Natsu thought about it, Lucy had become more than just the girl he had seen hiding in the shadow of a building all those weeks ago. She had become a member of Fairy Tail and had somehow become a good friend. Natsu didn’t he think he deserved to have someone like her around but now he didn’t want her to leave.   
“You’re thinking,” Lucy’s sleepy voiced scolded. “Just go to sleep Natsu.” Deciding to take her advice he closed his eyes and drifted into a bright, happy dream that he wished was his reality.  
 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, this chapter has mentions of self-harm but nothing actually happens. Some comforting Nalu time too. And Sting and Rogue come back! Enjoy!

“So are you sure they were talking about Evelyn?” Erza pressed at breakfast later that morning. Natsu didn’t say anything; he just finished pouring himself coffee and took a sip. Erza continued glaring at his back as Natsu grabbed a stack of pancakes that Lucy had made and drenched them in syrup. “Natsu.” He turned his head around to the woman who was giving him a scrutinizing

            “I. Don’t. Know. Erza. Hence, why I’m asking you for advice.” Her brown eyes narrowed at his attitude. Lucy sympathized with him; this could not be the best thing to deal with first thing in the morning. “Erza can I have twenty minutes of peace before everything goes to shit?” He didn’t wait for a response. Natsu stormed out of the room and slammed the door to his bedroom shut.

            “You shouldn’t have been so rough with him Erza; he’s going through a hard time,” Lucy tried to reason with her. “I can’t even imagine what he’s going through right now.”

            “Can I have hot chocolate?” Wendy asked trying to lessen the tension in the room.

            “I’ll get it for you child,” Charle answered and flew over to the cabinets to look for chocolate. Lucy bit her lip and looked down the hallway where Natsu had gone. She slipped from the kitchen and knocked on his door. When there wasn’t a response she frowned.

            “Natsu,” she called softly. She rapped on the door again. When there was no reply she opened the door. The blinds were drawn so only a sliver of sunlight was shining through. There was no one in the room so she went to the bathroom and braced herself before opening the door. Natsu was standing in front of the mirror, shirtless, water dripping off his face, and holding a razor in front of him. Lucy quickly moved behind him and wrapped her arms around him.

            “Lucy,” he murmured. Natsu put the razor down and covered Lucy’s slim hands with his. He hung his head and Lucy watched as a small tear ran down his face.

If the situation was less serious, Lucy was positive she would be blushing. They were in front of a mirror and this was the really the first time to actually look at him. Now was not the time to note how attractive he really was and she mentally scolded herself. “It’s going to be ok Natsu.” Their eyes locked in the mirror and she saw that Natsu was trying to believe her. He desperately wanted to feel hopeful, to be confident that they could reach his adopted sister in time but the positive thoughts weren’t there. Lucy recognized his face. It was the face of someone who had suffered pain and sadness at a young age. It was the face of someone who had lost a person so close to their hearts that they felt nothing would be right again. She recognized that expression; she had seen it on herself when her mother died. Against her will, tears welled up in her eyes.

“I know how you feel.” Natsu closed his eyes and turned around. When he opened his eyes Lucy’s heart broke.

“I’m not supposed to be like this,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t be like this. Right?”

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Lucy comforted him. “It’s ok to feel like this. I felt like this when my mother died.” The confession was so soft, so genuine that Natsu felt more tears come to his eyes. He knelt down to the floor, bringing Lucy with him, and locked his arms around her waist. Lucy flushed pink but she returned his hug. “Natsu, we need to go back. You need to eat.” He shook his head and Lucy sighed. “Yes Natsu, come on.” She stood up and pulled him up with her. Still sulking, Natsu allowed her to bring him into the kitchen.

“I made some eggs if you want some,” Wendy offered. Natsu grunted and grabbed some sriracha sauce and drowned the whole plate of scrambled eggs in the red sauce. Without making eye contact with anyone he slumped into a chair and began picking at the food in front of him.

“Natsu you need to eat,” Lucy reminded him and he just looked up at her in response. She could see the pain in his eyes. Lucy turned back to the rest of the group. “Why don’t you all start getting ready for the day?”

“They’re in love,” Happy cooed but Charle just snorted.

“Don’t say such foolish things,” the white cat scolded as the two flew out of the room.

“Natsu we talked about this. If Evelyn is here we need you to take care of yourself. _We can’t do this without you_.” As Natsu started eating the eggs in front of him, Lucy served herself two pancakes and squealed when she saw strawberry syrup in the fridge. The two ate in silence. Somewhere in the mansion she heard a crash and Erza started yelling at someone. Probably Gray.

“So what are we doing today?” Gray asked as he reentered the room, wearing sweats but no shirt.

“Well we can’t easily travel in the city anymore because of yesterday.” Erza entered the room with her arms crossed. “Gray can continue monitoring the city.”

“If we’re careful going through the city shouldn’t be a problem,” Natsu cut in. “We can wear disguises or something and ask around.”

“Or we can hack,” Gray prompted.

“Yes, we can,” Erza agreed. “Gray, can you get into the ‘Knights’ computers and see who the ‘prisoner’ is?” It was worded like a question but there was no mistaking the command behind it. Gray _would_ figure out a way to get into their systems or else.

They finally decided that Gray and Wendy would stay at the mansion while Natsu, Lucy, and Erza were going into the city. Erza had commanded that they split up. Natsu had firmly argued back that Lucy had to be with someone because there was a reward for finding her. Lucy had stayed silent through the whole exchange while the two violent teenagers yelled at each other.

“Natsu she can’t go with you! They’ll be looking for both of you now. She’s safer with me,” Erza snarled. Natsu hissed back.

“Natsu, Erza’s probably right.” Lucy hated to side with Erza. “They’ll expect me to be with you. And besides, it’ll be easier for you to sneak around since you won’t have to worry about protecting me.” The pinkette growled in response, but both Lucy and Erza weren’t taking no for an answer.

“Luuucy,” he whined and Erza rolled her eyes.

“Enough Natsu,” Erza commanded as the car rolled to a stop. “The decision has been made and besides, we’ll be in touch the entire time. Come along Lucy.”

“See you later Natsu.” She waved and got a grunt in return. Lucy bit her lip and wondered if she had made the right decision. “He’ll be ok won’t he?”

“Natsu knows what he’s doing, he’ll be fine.” Lucy nodded but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.

With the hood on his sweatshirt up, with Happy walking next to him, Natsu easily walked through the crowds of people in the city without fear of being noticed. Pink hair did tend to stand out. As he strode through the city keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, his mind travelled back to that morning. Even though his sleep last night was probably the best sleep he’s had in weeks, he felt irritated this morning. He had stormed off into his room because he needed time to clear his head and organize his emotions. But he didn’t know how to do that without hurting himself. Natsu had been moments away from tearing into his skin when Lucy had interrupted. Looking back on it, Natsu was glad she did. Natsu knew that both Gray and Erza had gone through similar situations with their parents, but they had never been truly alone. Gray had had Lyon and Ultear and Erza had had Millianna before they went their separate ways. Lucy knew what it was like to lose people that were probably one of her only remaining connections to her past. Recalling her expression in the mirror and when he was crying on the floor, he realized with a pang that she probably knew what he was going through more than anyone else.

For the first couple months after Layla Heartfilia had died, Loke had kept him informed of Jude’s change in personality and temperament. How he never interacted with his daughter anymore, how he would hit her if she misbehaved. He couldn’t imagine how lonely that must have been. When Igneel and his uncles and aunt went missing, at least he had his cousins. And yet, even though he had his Fairy Tail family, he felt alone. Especially now. Lucy had been alone. She knew what he was going through. Maybe one of the only people who understood him.

“Watch where you’re going idiot,” someone sneered as he bumped into a guy on the sidewalk. “Jerk.” Natsu just kept his head low and pushed past him. “Answer me!” The man lunged and grabbed his wrist.

“Listen, I don’t want to fight,” Natsu growled, keeping his head low. “Just let me pass and nothing has to happen.” Finally looking up Natsu swore under his breath. “Fuck.”

“I heard that there was a salamander running around the city. I didn’t think you were stupid enough to show your face here again.” Natsu tensed and looked down at Happy.

“Find Lucy and Erza,” Natsu muttered, low enough for only his cat to hear him. Without a word, Happy scampered away to try and find the two girls who had vanished almost as soon as they exited the car. Natsu silently prayed that Happy would find them without too much trouble. Reluctantly he looked back up into the smirking face of Dan Straight, one of the people in charge of the Zentopia branch of the Era government. They masqueraded as a religious organization but in reality they were the farthest thing from pious. From the few encounters Natsu had had with Dan he came to two conclusions: he was an egomaniac and a pervert.

“Where’s Lu-Lu?” Natsu wanted to stab him for the lecherous expression on his face.

“Lu-Lu?” Natsu questioned as he raised an eyebrow.

“Well we know each other,” he boasted. “We have a really good relationship.”

“Oh I’m sure. She speaks very highly of how perverted you are,” Natsu retorted, taking pleasure in the frustration that flickered across his face.

“Now are you going to come quietly or will we have to fight?” Natsu shrugged.

“I don’t care, do whatever.” He pulled out handcuffs and Natsu winced at the clicking noise of them shutting. His only hope was that this would lead him to Evelyn.

Meanwhile, Erza and Lucy were having a fun time window shopping while listening for anything suspicious. “Erza! Lucy!”

“Happy what’s wrong?” Erza crossed her arms and frowned.

“Natsu got arrested.”

“He got what?” Erza screeched. “What idiot thing did he do now?”

“Natsu bumped into Dan Straight and he went willingly. He told me to find you and I did.” Erza sighed and Lucy looked concerned. Lucy knew what Natsu was thinking. He probably thought that if he was arrested he would find his sister.

“I know why he went,” Lucy piped up. “He’s probably hoping to find Evelyn in prison. I’m just afraid of what will happen if he does see her.” _Or if he doesn’t_ she added silently. Lucy could see irritation creeping across her face and Lucy sighed. “We should go back to see if Gray has found anything yet.” Erza pursed her lips and sighed.

“I’ll send messages to our allies. Sting and Rogue will want to know as well.” Happy was wearing a nervous yet sad expression on his face. Lucy scooped up the blue cat and held him close to her.

“It’s ok, Natsu will manage,” Lucy comforted and Happy just nodded. “Do you want fish when we get back?” He perked up considerably at the thought of eating fish.

The ride back to the mansion was silent and tense. When they entered the house there was music playing and both Wendy and Gray were eating cake while they were monitoring the live feeds from the cameras throughout the city.

“Where’s Natsu?” Wendy asked and Lucy bit her lip.

“He got arrested by Dan Straight,” Happy replied and Lucy shivered at the name. “Do you know him Lucy?”

“Unfortunately. He was a suitor that my father tried to set me up with. What a pervert. We think Natsu went quietly to try and find Evelyn.” Gray and Wendy shared a glance before both sighed.

“Did you see it on your cameras Gray?” Wendy asked and Gray shrugged.

“All of the videos are recorded so we can go back and look for where they were and where they went. Maybe I can hack into their criminal records to see where they’re holding him.”

Erza nodded her agreement. “Very well then. I’m going to message Sting and Rogue to tell them that we might have found Evelyn.” Happy padded over to the freezer and took out a fish and began to gnaw on it even though it was frozen. Lucy sighed and decided to take a bath to de-stress from the day.

“I’ll make dinner tonight Lucy,” Wendy offered and Lucy smiled at her.

“Thank you Wendy.”

As they sat down to dinner Gray cleared his throat. “I managed to get into the government’s prison records. Natsu was processed and is being held in the high-security wards.” Erza grimaced.

“I don’t see why I’m surprised. The cells are bulletproof glass so in theory no one can be broken out.” Gray smiled as he was about to say something a ringing started from one of the hologram displays. Gray swiped and a video of Sting and Rogue standing outside their house appeared.

“Can we come in or will we have to hack the system?” Sting asked with a teasing smile.

“Absolutely not,” Wendy giggled as she went to open the gates and doors for them.

“So have we found out anything?” Rogue asked as they gathered around the dinner table.

“Natsu’s being held in a high-security prison cell and he was arrested by Dan Straight. So far no records of Evelyn have come up. Although to be fair they organize their systems by legal last name so of course it wouldn’t come up as Dragneel,” Gray explained.

“Evelyn never told you her legal last name?” Lucy asked and Erza shook her head.

“Era likes to boast that their high-security wards are invincible,” Sting smirked. “They haven’t met us yet.” Wendy laughed and Gray chuckled. Even Erza had a smile on her face.

“We’ll plan our attack tomorrow. I think all of us need to relax before things get intense tomorrow.

The Era prisons weren’t as bad as other ones that Natsu had seen before. The bulletproof glass cells were clean and the beds were actually semi-comfortable. Of course the glass was also soundproof so he could barely hear what was happening outside the cell. For the position he was in, Natsu was pretty calm. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that Gray had managed to hack into the government undetected and that Erza had most likely called Sting and Rogue. They would make their plans over the next day or two and then he would be free. But first he had to figure out a way to get out of the cell so he could investigate the rest of the building. From what he had experienced, the Era wardens were pretty naïve, which was surprising considering the main seat of government was here.

All he had to think about was any mode of transportation and he immediately felt queasy. He had nailed the expression he had when he got carsick and so when he collapsed on the bed holding his hands over his mouth with puffed up cheeks it was only a matter of time before a guard came to his room to escort him to a bathroom so he wouldn’t make a mess in his cell. Natsu smirked as soon as he entered the room. He made fake retching noises before calling to the guard outside, “I’m going to be in here for a while, I don’t want to take up too much of your time.” Natsu kept his ear pressed to the door and was relieved when the guard had taken the bait. The only difficult part would be sneaking around. The floors all formed a border around an open space at the bottom of the building for a cafeteria so it was easy for someone to look across and see someone with pink hair and a scarf walking through the halls with no escort. That being said, Fairy Tail had access to every document in the prisons from floor plans to schedules. He just had to wait two more minutes and then he could explore to his heart’s content since that was when curfew was called and there was only one security guard left for the whole building. And even if he was caught, he was sure he’d see his adoptive sister where they dealt out punishment. No doubt she had put up a fight from the very first day she had arrived. _Soon_ , he promised himself, _you’ll see her again soon._

_  
_


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References to self-harm, no actual actions. I graduated yesterday so I'll put up two or three more chapters today. Remember to go to my fanfic account for the whole story.

Natsu’s night started off fairly well. He got maybe three yards away from his door before sirens went off and he was surprised when they dragged him past his room.

“Do I get to know where I’m going or is that classified?” He didn’t expect the guard to answer.

“You won’t see daylight,” he said shortly.

“Oh so solitary confinement. Wonderful.” That snarky comment earned him a punch to the jaw. Natsu used the impact from the punch to his advantage and fell back, yanking the guard with him. While the guard was on the ground Natsu kicked his ribs, grabbed his shirt and slammed him against the wall hard enough to give him a small concussion. He dropped the guard and ran, not forgetting to grab the lanyard from around his neck that had a security keycard. Natsu rolled his eyes. Best security in Fiore? Any decent security system used eye scanners instead of cards. Casually, Natsu headed in the same direction the guard had been dragging him toward. If Natsu knew Evelyn, she would have been put in solitary confinement a long time ago for causing too much trouble.

The solitary confinement ward was in a separate wing than the rest of the high-security prison. All the floors were cut up into segments. There were small sectioned off hallways with a clear cell taking up two thirds of the space, leaving barely enough room for someone to walk by and into another sectioned off area. Doors that were impossible to see allowed the wardens to go in and out of the rooms by a keypad that was outside on the glass wall. The problem? The halls seemed endless and there were four floors of nothing but segmented hallways and rooms. At that moment, Natsu really wished he had something he could use to hack the building. “This is dumb,” he muttered under his breath. As he approached the door that lead to the fourth floor of the solitary confinement wing he swiped the security card and the door opened.

Thankfully there was dim lighting in the hallways at night since there were no windows or skylights. Natsu wanted to move quickly so he quickly glanced over the people in each cell, using his scientifically enhanced senses to sniff out his adoptive sister. Less than five cells into his search, he was thoroughly disgusted with Era’s wardens.

Some people were lying on the provided beds normally; most of them however were curled up with blankets over their heads, those that weren’t under blankets looked incredibly beaten up. Bruises and scrapes painted their skin shades of blues, purples, and reds. Natsu had to resist the urge to lead a rebellion. No human being should be treated like this. This wasn’t just prison at this point, this was an excuse for torture. He prayed to every deity that he knew of that he wouldn’t get caught by wardens or guards before he found anything important.

The farther down the hallway he went, the worse people’s conditions became. All the cells were spotless but towards the end of the fourth floor hallway, there were people curled up in corners rocking themselves with tear tracks glistening in the dim light. Natsu felt ice spread through his heart as he realized this was only the tip of the iceberg for the punishment Era law enforcement had come up with. Evelyn wasn’t on the fourth floor. Natsu was scared to see the damage that had been inflicted on his sister. If he did, he’d have to break his promise and kill someone.

 

When Lucy woke up in the middle of the night, she decided to make some tea to calm herself down. When Lucy entered the kitchen she saw Gray was still up, typing in lines of code and trying to gain access to the prison’s computer system. “Have you made any progress?” Lucy asked and Gray jumped at her voice.

“Some. I found out where Natsu’s cell was before they changed it to solitary confinement.” Lucy gasped and held her hands up to her mouth in horror. The few times Lucy had had to deal with Dan Straight he always seemed proud of the punishment and cruelty solitary confinement in Era inflicted on the inmates. “I wouldn’t worry yet though. They probably scanned him for technology when he entered the building but they don’t know about the microchip that all of us have. I’ve activated the code and I’ve been tracking his movements and compared his coordinates to those on the blueprints.” Gray moved so Lucy could see a 3D view of the prison blueprints on a coordinate grid with a blinking red dot moving slowly down the hallway.

“How long has he been there?” Lucy asked.

“Definitely for around ten minutes. He’s going through all of the solitary confinement cells looking for Evelyn. I just hope he doesn’t get caught.”

“Why are you two up?” Sting yawned. “ I could hear you from my room.”

“Sorry Sting, I’ve been tracking Natsu. I guessed that he got into a fight with a guard, won, and started snooping around the solitary confinement wing to find Evie.” While the two teenagers talked, Lucy made herself a mug of tea. While Lucy was trying not to spit out the tea due to how hot it was, Sting walked over to her.

“Lucy can I talk to alone for a second?” Lucy arched an eyebrow but followed Sting back to his room. In the dark Lucy could see Rogue leaning on a couch, Frosch on his stomach, but Natsu’s cousin was definitely awake. Lector was curled up on a chair blissfully ignoring everything. “How has Natsu been?” Lucy stayed silent until Rogue sighed.

“We know about everything that happened with him when Evelyn initially disappeared. We’re maybe one of the only ones who know how far he had fallen,” Rogue explained.

“He didn’t tell me about that but I can guess what happened.” Lucy collected herself and looked at the ceiling. “When we got a lead on her in Hargeon and it turned out to be fake, Natsu drove back to the mansion and locked himself in his bathroom. When Happy and I got there he was cutting.” The two cousins shared glances with each other and nodded. “And then this morning, I think he was considering it again after Erza kept interrogating him over whether or not the police were actually talking about Evelyn.”

“And he was making so much progress too,” Sting lamented with a sad smile.

“Has no one questioned anything? Has anyone noticed?”

Sting and Rogue shared another glance. “If they have, they haven’t asked about it. I guess they just thought whatever he went through was over.”

“What was he like before this?” Lucy asked.

“Less harsh, less cold. He laughed a lot more,” Rogue summed up. It seemed that Rogue never really talked that much. Or maybe that was just around her.

 

Walking through the desolate halls of the prison was depressing, Natsu decided as he worked his way through the third floor and was approaching the stairwell to the second floor. So far he hadn’t seen or smelt Evelyn, which meant she had to be on the second or first floors, where they kept the people who had been decided to be tortured worse than any of the other inmates. Natsu clenched his fist at the image that came to his head. He noticed that some of the people on this floor seemed to be unconscious and their clothes were covered in dried blood. Natsu shook himself out of his reverie and practically sprinted through the hallways to reach the stairs. If she wasn’t down the stairs, he didn’t know where she could be.

“Please be here,” he prayed to himself. Natsu felt his fingers cross in a gesture of hope. There was nothing until the fourth cell in that a figure caught his attention. The pinkette found himself staring into a glass room where a girl with black hair was crumpled on the floor. It was the smell that got him though. Underneath the smell of sweat, tears, and blood was Evelyn’s campfire and pine scent. Natsu’s breath caught. “Evelyn!” Completely forgetting about the pressure-sensitive enclosures he started banging on the glass wall. “Evie! Wake up! Please!” Red lights started flashing and alarms were wailing. The girl’s eyelids flickered open and made eye contact with her brother. Natsu shuddered at her eyes. Those bright, happy eyes were gone. Not literally of course, but she looked dead. Like the people Natsu had seen before her, she was covered in dried blood and his heart froze when he saw the countless scars that seemed to cover every inch of her skin. Most were healed and they had healed nicely. They were all paler than her skin and some were thick and actually were raised above her skin while others were smaller and thin.

“What are you doing here?” a voice boomed and multiple guards had both exits blocked off.

“Lahar, what a pleasure to see you again,” Natsu said in a deadly calm voice. “I see you’ve been treating my sister well. I’ll have to thank you for that.” Before he could even move a small dart hit his shoulder. Natsu looked down at his arm. “Fuck my life.” Then he passed out and was dragged into the first solitary confinement cell that had been kept empty just for him.

 

To say Evelyn was confused would be an understatement. All she wanted to do was sleep; today’s ‘conduct lesson’ had been brutal. She really resented all of the technology that had been developed because it fell into wrong hands. Scientists who had been bribed with money and power had turned technology that was supposed to be helpful into what she dubbed ‘nightmare magic’. Panic attacks, drug-induced nightmares, physical beatings, electrocution, terrifying hallucinations, mind manipulation, and so much more had made her life a living hell. And she was so, so _tired_. Sleep was precious because she didn’t know _when_ the wardens would decide to start messing with her mind again. The food that they gave out was barely enough to keep her from starving and water was precious. So when she saw someone who looked and sounded suspiciously as her adopted brother, Evelyn shrugged it off as a cruel hallucination. Her tormentors weren’t above doing something like that. And besides, they had told her that Natsu had been killed. She was so tired and hopeless that she just accepted it, after almost clawing out Dan Straight’s eyes that is. That punishment had been harsh. Tears welled up in her eyes and lifting her head up was exhausting so she hit the cold floor and unconsciously cried herself to sleep.

 

Meanwhile Gray, Lucy, and Sting were still tracking Natsu’s movements. “He stopped at these coordinates,” Lucy noted. “Do you think that could be where Evelyn is?”

“Maybe so,” Gray agreed as he recorded Natsu’s location. Or it could be his new cell.”

“I don’t think so because now he’s moving away and…oh. It looks like he’s been put in a cell,” Sting observed and Gray recorded more information. “Should we call in the others for help?”

 “How can we break Evie out without starting a riot among the people that genuinely deserve to be there is a better question,” Gray answered. “Let’s figure this out after we’ve all had some sleep.”

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

Fairy Tail’s mansion location in Era had been buzzing with activity since five in the morning. Gray was still monitoring Era’s prison and keeping tabs on Natsu and Evelyn’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, everyone else was crowded around holographic blueprints with various drawings on it.   
“I still say we should wait,” Erza stated and everyone glared at her.   
“We’ve pulled off crazier stuff than this before Erza,” Sting glanced at her and Erza’s eye twitched. “Besides, the longer we wait, the more trouble Natsu’s going to get in to.”   
“I agree with Sting,” Gray called from where he was seated. “All of us know that Natsu’s impulsive and he’s in a situation where if he does anything stupid he can get killed.”   
“He’s right Erza,” Rogue concurred. “And don’t forget, Evelyn’s been there for a year. We know she’s alive, but we don’t know how long she’ll last. I’ve heard horror stories about what goes on in Era’s solitary confinement ward.”  
“All of us have,” Wendy nodded her head in agreement. “I say we go as soon as we can.”   
“Very well then,” Erza dropped her head and sighed. “Gray, are you confident you can override the security system long enough for us to sneak in and sneak out?”   
“Yeah, I can unlock prison cells from a remote location so that won’t be a problem.” Off to the side lists of numbers were crawling along the hologram and Gray looked at them quickly. “Once we get the cells unlocked, the most time I can give you is a seven to ten minute window before the security system comes back online.”   
“I think we should call in backup,” Lucy voiced and Erza nodded her approval.   
“I’ll call Gajeel and some of the others to come here now.”   
“Do you think you can get Jellal to come? It probably won’t work but can you try?”   
“I can talk to him, I can’t make any promises.” And with that the redhead walked out of the kitchen and into a bedroom to start making phone calls.   
Lucy decided she needed energy so she wandered over to the cabinet and pulled out a mug for tea. “Do any of you want tea?” There was a chorus of agreement and she smiled. Peppermint tea was soothing, so after she heated up the water, she dropped a peppermint teabag in each mug. Lucy could hear Erza talking in one of the rooms but she couldn’t hear what she was saying.   
“So are all the plans made yet?” Wendy asked as she nursed her mug of tea.   
“For the most part,” Gray said, his eyes never leaving the holographic display in front of him. “I mean, I think we figured out a way to get them in and out since I can override the system for a little bit. I just think we need more people incase we’re not fast enough.”  
“I could call in some of the others from Saber,” Sting suggested. “Yukino and Minerva would be more than happy to help. Maybe Rufus and Orga too.”   
“I’ll go call them now.” Rogue left the room dialing a number on his phone.   
“Do you think they’ll come?” Wendy asked her older cousin.   
“Of course they will,” Sting ruffled her blue hair. “They’re always up for a good fight.” Erza walked back into the room with a not-happy expression. “What happened Erza?”   
“Jellal isn’t answering and Gajeel and Levy won’t get here until nightfall because they’re running a small job right now. Where did Rogue go?”   
“He’s calling Minerva, Yukino, Rufus, and Orga to see if they’ll come,” Gray answered. “Do you think we could ask Lamia and Pegasus too? With the amount of times we bailed them out of trouble they should come and help us.”   
“That’s an excellent idea Gray,” Erza nodded. “Would you like to call Lyon and ask him?”   
“Would I like to? No, not really. Will I because I have to? Sure, why not,” Gray muttered before typing in a command and a video screen popped up in the air.   
“Hello Gray,” Lyon answered within a matter of seconds.   
“Hi Lyon,” Gray responded with forced enthusiasm. “Would you mind helping us out?” Gray looked like he was bracing himself for whatever his cousin’s response was going to be.   
“You need my help, do you?” Lucy could see why Gray was trying to control himself. He was wearing a smug smirk and had an arched eyebrow as if he was proud that he was being asked for help. “What do you need my help with?”   
“We’re trying to break Natsu and Evelyn out of prison,” Erza broke in, giving Gray a break. “We finally found her and Natsu got arrested. We have a way to get them out but it involves a limited amount of time to safely get them out. Extra help would be nice if we don’t get out in time.”   
“I’ll ask Jura and Chelia but I believe we’ll be able to come and help. If you’re in Era it’ll only take us an hour or so to get there.”   
“Excellent, we’ll see you then. And thank you again.” The screen went black and Gray punched in another number.   
“This one’s for Blue Pegasus. Having Hibiki working with me would make things a lot easier,” Gray said, his eyes never leaving the screen. Lucy turned back to her tea and watched as Ichiya answered. This time it was Erza who looked like she was trying to control herself.   
“Hello my comrades, can I help you?”   
“Is Hibiki there?” Gray asked, stopping Erza from having to reply. “I really need to talk to him.” Erza breathed a sigh of relief when Ichiya complied with minimal weirdness.   
“Hello Gray.” Hibiki Lates, the technology and communication expert from Blue Pegasus appeared on the video feed wearing a tux with his hair gelled to match what was considered ‘hot’ at the moment. “What’s up?”   
“We need your help. We finally found Evelyn and Natsu wound up and got himself arrested and they’re in the solitary confinement ward in Era. I have a way to hack the system to get them out but actually getting out will be a problem. I can only override the system for five minutes. Would you be willing to help?” Hibiki rested his chin on his hand and looked like he was doing calculations in his head.   
“If I use Christina I can get there within an hour.”   
“That’d be great, thank you Hibiki,” Erza said and they hung up.   
As preparations and plans were made, Lucy couldn’t help but feel a dull ache of worry at what Natsu and Evelyn were going through. 

Natsu woke up with blurry vision and a pounding headache. Up above him was white and everything around him was white. He sat up and massaged his head. Memories of last night had come into his mind and the anger that he felt at seeing his sister came flooding back. He punched the wall out of frustration and then winced, knowing a bruise was going to form there. From the corner of his eye he saw a warden dressed in white typing something into a holographic keyboard when the two made eye contact, Natsu hissed. Of course it had to be Lahar. He pressed a button and Natsu was about to laugh when a jolt of electricity shot up his spine and made him go limp on his bed trying to catch his breath.   
“Natsu Dragneel,” Lahar’s voice was projected over a speaker built into the wall and camouflaged to be impossible to locate. “We’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”   
“I wouldn’t be so cocky if I were you,” Natsu fired back. “Fairy Tail’s planning how to get Evelyn and I back as we speak. We’re about to give you hell.” In retaliation he was shocked again. This time the voltage seemed higher and he collapsed on the bed.   
“We shall see Mr. Dragneel. I wouldn’t hold out too much hope. No one escapes from Era’s solitary confinement ward; it’s even referred to now as the Palace of Perdition. Enjoy your stay.” With a cruel smirk, Lahar was gone. 

Evelyn had started shaking and screaming in the middle of the night. It was another one of those fucking nightmares that the Era jail wardens had conjured up. “How are you feeling today Ms. Dragneel?” Lahar asked, knowing perfectly well she didn’t have the energy to reply. “I hope you had a pleasant sleep.” Evelyn glared, but she couldn’t do much else.   
“Where’s my brother?” she croaked. Evelyn hadn’t used her voice for much besides screaming, crying, and begging to be left alone. Due to the disuse it was scratchy and not like her voice at all.   
“You never saw your brother,” Lahar replied calmly. “He’s dead remember? We had him publicly executed. I believe we showed you that. Do you need to watch it again?” Her limp black hair flew as she furiously shook her head.   
“No, please don’t.” She was begging and desperate, just how Lahar liked to see her. Seeing someone who had once been strong and now was too weak to move was satisfying. “I’ll behave, just don’t show that to me again.”   
“Good girl,” Lahar praised. “You’ve been well-behaved for the past three days so I’ll have someone bring you food and water.” He chuckled seeing her not responding because she had fallen back asleep. As he walked out he made a mental note to have someone send more nightmares or hallucinations her way. He couldn’t have her being too comfortable, after all. 

 


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Actual self-harm towards the end of the chapter. I'll mark it off for you.

As the sun was setting Minerva, Yukino, Orga, Rufus, Lyon, Jura, Chelia, and Hibiki were standing around Gray’s holographic display looking at building blueprints. “So just to run through the plan one more time,” Erza said for what was probably the third time in an hour. “Gray and Hibiki will be in the technology and security room with Lyon and Rufus standing guard outside, only coming in if help is needed. Hibiki you said someone can only hack into the system for a certain amount of time correct?”   
Blue Pegasus’s master hacker nodded. “There’s a bug in the system that no one’s bothered to fix because the odds of someone with enough skill to hack in is slim to none. When the system realizes that it’s been breached it launches into an automatic lockdown that takes five minutes to complete because all of the files and data have to be transferred to another location. At most, we’ll have ten minutes.”   
“How do you know all of that?” Lucy asked, interested yet disturbed at how easily a criminal knew everything about the Era prison security system.   
“He was the one we went to for help when Ultear and Jellal were thrown in jail a couple of years ago,” Happy said as he chewed on a fish as he, Charle, Lector, and Frosch were watching what was going on with interest.   
“Won’t the security guards and wardens realize that someone’s broken in?” Charle voiced and Hibiki bit his lip.   
“It’s hard to say. Of course they’ll notice that something’s wrong but if we have control over the technology then there won’t be anyway for the announcement to be broadcasted since we can override the communication network,” Gray answered as Hibiki and Lyon nodded in agreement.   
“Regardless, physically fighting won’t be a problem,” Jura remarked. “We have superior weaponry and we know more about the building and rechnology than the people that work there do.”   
“They outnumber us fifteen to one,” Rufus commented. “But taking them on shouldn’t be a problem for the reasons that Jura mentioned.”   
“So after we get inside,” Erza raised her voice above everyone else’s so she could go over the plan they had been over three times already. “When they tell us that they have control over the system we will go to the solitary confinement wing and Gray and Hibiki will unlock their cells. We will get them and then we’ll go. Carry a stun gun and any other weapons you see fit.”   
“I think it’d be easier to go around in groups of two or three so we can move more quickly,” Minerva stated and there were nods of agreement.   
“Rogue, Lucy, Wendy, and I will go find Natsu and Evelyn. The rest of you can cover us and make sure that there are no guards coming towards or moving through the SC wing,” Sting proposed.   
“Wait, why am I going with you?” Lucy asked. Being part of the group that was participating in the most dangerous part of the job was not what she was planning on doing. “I’m not skilled enough for that.”   
“Doesn’t matter,” Sting argued back. “Natsu likes you and this is the perfect way for you to get more experience.”   
“We won’t let you get hurt Lucy,” Wendy promised and Lucy whined.   
“Sting is right, you should go with them,” Erza agreed and that was when Lucy knew her fate was sealed. She might not have been at Fairy Tail for very long, but she knew when Erza said you do something, you do it.   
“Yes ma’am,” Lucy yelped. “So how are we sneaking in?” Chelia chuckled and drew out a keycard.   
“We have one of their security cards from when we were breaking out Jellal and Ultear. I want to work with Wendy but I understand why she should go with Sting and Rogue.”   
“If Wendy doesn’t mind I could gladly take her place,” Erza offered and Wendy smiled.   
“Thank you Erza. I’ll go with you then Chelia. We haven’t worked together in a while.”   
“Yukino, Orga, and I can all go as a group,” Minerva decided and no one argued with her.   
“If you don’t mind I’ll go with Wendy and Chelia,” Jura said. Chelia pouted but Wendy looked glad that there would be someone else with them. “Excellent so now that everything’s planned out we can go soon.  
“Are Levy and Gajeel not coming with us?” Lucy asked.   
“It would take them too long to get here considering we want Natsu and Evelyn out as soon as possible,” Gray answered and Lucy nodded, a bit disappointed but she understood the reasoning.   
“There are weapons in the basement. Get what you want and then we need to go. Also, if you want to bring the rope and a lighter along you can get that in the garage. We’ll meet back here in five minutes.” While Erza was barking out commands Lucy was shaking from nerves. “We’ll be taking three separate cars based on which group you’re in since the cars will need to be parked at different locations.”   
Lucy walked to the basement with Gray and Erza. While most of the others immediately knew which weapons to get Lucy took her time sorting through guns and looking for any that were similar to what she had used. “Lucy.” The blonde looked turned around to look at Rogue who had called her name. “This is a gun similar to the ones you’ve used before I believe. It has a laser to help with guidance and it’s only a stun gun.”   
“Thank you Rogue.” The black-haired teen nodded and she followed him silently up the stairs. When they were all back upstairs they broke into three groups. Lucy was standing with Rogue, Sting and Erza.   
“Does everyone have their network communicator?” When everyone nodded Erza spoke again. “Wonderful, remember we have ten minutes to get this done before the security system kicks in. We have to move fast and carefully if we are to avoid detection. That means no going overboard. Understood?” When everyone nodded again she drew in a breath. “Excellent, I wish the best of luck to all of you.” With that everyone filed outside and went into their own cars. Despite what Lucy would have expected when Sting jumped into the driver’s seat, music began blasting from the speakers in the car. The car was filled with laughter and chatter, almost as if they were on their way to a movie.   
“We have the card right?” Lucy questioned and Sting answered her by waving the keycard in her face.   
“Right here blondie. We know what we’re doing, so just relax.” Lucy nodded and tried to follow his advice but it was difficult. If this were to be on the news and somehow they caught wind that she was involved there would be lots of people looking for her, and not all of them would be friendly.   
The drive continued until they pulled up to a gate that lead to the back of the prison. Sting held the card up to a scanner and when the light flashed green the gate swung open for them. From the lights that were cast on the building, she could see that the design was modern but it was made of concrete. The chain-link fences and barbed wire glinted in the moonlight.   
“I hoped we’d never have to see this place again,” Erza muttered and Sting nodded.   
“I think a lot of us hoped that too,” Rogue agreed. “The license plates are fixed right?”   
“Yes, they are,” Sting confirmed. Seeing Lucy’s confused expression he launched into an explanation. “The license plates are special because they can look like other license plate numbers that aren’t related to Fairy Tail at all. It’s one version of stealth mode that we use a lot.” Lucy nodded in understand and went back to deeply breathing to calm her nerves. “We’re here.”   
The four teenagers got out of the car and closed the doors as quietly as possible. “What are we waiting for?” Lucy whispered.   
“We’re waiting until Gray and the others tell us they have control over the system,” Rogue replied. “Once they do, we have to run. Hibiki uploaded the timer to our network communicators so we have three minutes to get in there, four to grab Evelyn and Natsu, then three to get out and off the perimeter.”   
“Erza you have the rope right?” Sting asked. In the dark, Lucy could see Erza’s silhouette nodding her head.   
“Hibiki has three and I have three. Both of us have lighters.”  
“Why do you bring the rope?” Lucy asked, seriously hoping she wasn’t being annoying.   
“It’s our signature.” Lucy hadn’t known Sting long but she could hear the smirk in his voice. He fell quiet before speaking again. “The signal’s coming in three.” He was quiet and then whispered “run.” 

Getting in to the security room was easier than Gray had been expecting. He couldn’t believe that the Era “knights” were so cocky they could leave it virtually unprotected. Not that he was complaining. Whatever would make his life easier the better. Lyon was running next to him and Orga and Hibiki weren’t far behind. He knew from the map that was uploaded to the network communicator that the security room was in the center of the building on the top floor, looking out over the atrium where inmates could eat and play cards.   
When they got there, two guards were standing outside the doors. Rufus smirked and drew his weapon of choice, a dart that would knock the person unconscious and affect their memory so they wouldn’t remember how they got shot. When the two fell silently Gray kicked the door open and Rufus fired his gun again.   
“Of course they don’t have holographic displays,” Gray muttered. “That would be too easy.”   
“Well they can’t afford them,” Hibiki responded, sharing Gray’s disappointment for not having holographic technology. “Gray do you mind if I deal with the computer since I know it better?” For a moment it looked like Gray was about to argue back but he shrugged realizing time was essential.   
“When I get the ok from the others you can.” The Blue Pegasus member nodded.   
“Minerva, are you in position?” Rufus asked into the communicator. When she confirmed it Lyon asked Jura the same question.   
“Both teams are in position,” Gray said. “Send the signal to the others and go.” 

Lucy and the others overheard what was going on through the communicators so when Minerva said that everyone in the solitary confinement wing had been dealt with Lucy visibly relaxed. Chelia said that their group was standing by at the entrance to make sure no one got in. As they had gone over the blueprints trying to find any potential weaknesses, they had found their was one hard-to-find door that was in use only if evacuation was necessary. Nothing had ever triggered that particular protocol so it was forgotten, for the most part. They found it by locating a scanner built into the wall.   
“We got through the door and we’re making our way to the first and fourth cells now. Sting and Rogue are getting Natsu, Lucy and I are getting Evelyn.”  
“Perfect. You have four minutes to get there and take them out. Be careful,” Lyon said. “Nobody’s tried coming up and we haven’t seen anything concerning on the security cameras.”   
As the group of four ran through the segmented hallways, they were horrified at what they saw. Most of the people were shaking, covered in sweat and dried blood, and seemed unconscious. “We just passed the sixth. Only two more before we get to Evelyn’s cell. Hibiki, be ready to unlock the door,” Sting informed. Collectively, everyone screeched to a halt and stared in horror at the small teenage girl curled up into a corner.   
“Sting, Rogue, you need to go,” Lucy urged. “We can take care of her, you just focus on getting Natsu.” The two cousins nodded, still wide-eyed at the sight before them, but they ran ahead. There was no word from Hibiki or Gray but when the disguised door swung open Erza and Lucy rushed in. When Erza reached down to touch Natsu’s adoptive sister to wake her up she screamed.   
“Evelyn, Evie, it’s me. It’s Erza, we’re taking you home.” The girl continued shaking her head.   
“No, this is just another illusion,” she murmured. “They told me you were dead, that Fairy Tail got broken up.”   
“Erza we need to go!” Sting yelled from the hallway. To Erza and Lucy’s relief Natsu was leaning on Sting’s shoulder, tired but alive.   
“She’s not coming with us! Evelyn doesn’t think we’re real!” Lucy yelled back.   
“Guys you have a minute to get out if we want to leave undetected!” Gray said through network.   
“Knock her out, otherwise we’ll be caught!” Sting yelled back.   
“We can’t do that!” Lucy was horrified that he even suggested it.   
“Unfortunately, we don’t have any other choice.” And with that Erza punched her head, just hard enough to knock her unconscious, and scooped her up.   
“Are you ok Natsu?” Lucy asked as Erza gave Evelyn to Rogue to carry.   
“Yeah, they didn’t have much time to do anything drastic. Just some electrocution.” He said it so casually that Lucy wanted to cry for what he and his sister had been through.   
“We have to leave now, there are people moving around coming to the SC ward,” Hibiki announced. There was swearing from everyone around her and the group sprinted towards the exit. “A guard is coming your way. That’s as much as we can tell you.”   
“Stay right where you are,” a guard growled at them.   
“I don’t think so,” Erza growled as she shot him in the knee. The guard cried in pain as he crumpled to the floor. “Run! We only have a minute to get to the car and out!”   
Lucy had never ran as fast as she did in that moment. When they were halfway back to the car sirens started whining from inside the compound. When they reached the car, Erza pulled out the rope gang emblems, tossed them on the ground, and set all of them on fire. Sting slid the card through the scanner so they could get out without a hitch. By the time guards got out and saw the burning symbols, they were already outside of the gate. “Will they pursue us?” Lucy asked.   
Natsu, who was sitting with his arm around his sister was the one who answered. “No. They’re too ashamed and have too much pride to admit that someone broke out. Again. They’ll try to cover it up and it’ll come back to all of us having at least one million jewels on our heads.”   
“Were there any familiar people still there?” Rogue asked and Natsu nodded.   
“Yeah, that fucker Bora was there. Jose and Brain were there too. Still locked up, but they do it based off of how badly they want you dead right? They were on the fucking third floor! Evie and I were on the first! You know what that means right?” Nobody responded but nobody had to. It meant that the government hated people like Natsu more than those that actually deserved to be there. “Sting, Rogue, are you guys leaving after you drop us off?”   
“Yeah we have our car at the mansion. We want to stay but, we’d feel better back at Saber,” Sting explained. He pressed a button and the chairs all turned to face each other. “I think the others are leaving too. You’ll tell us when Evie wakes up?”  
“Of course we will,” Natsu said and Sting nodded. “I’d recommend laying low for a while to avoid attention. We don’t know how long they’ll be looking for us.”   
“Noted,” Rogue acknowledged. “We’ll be home in five minutes.” The car was silent except for the Evelyn’s breathing. Everyone jumped when they heard a whimper.   
“That doesn’t even sound like her voice,” Erza whispered in shock. “And she’s so thin.” Lucy could see that Natsu was tense. She would have to check on him later to make sure that he was ok. When they pulled up to the curb everyone climbed out. There were hugs and handshakes; Lyon and Gray refused to make eye contact with each other when they shook hands. Shortly after Natsu had given handshakes and high-fives with Sting and Rogue he disappeared with Evelyn into his bedroom. Lucy heard the water start running and she sighed. Erza and Gray went to their own rooms and Lucy found an empty bathroom to shower. When she got out she followed through on her promise and went to check on Natsu.   
“Hi Lucy.” She turned around to see Happy behind her. “How did the job go?”   
“It went well. We got Natsu and Evelyn back. I’m going to check on them right now. Do you want to come?”   
“Aye sir!” Happy chirped and the two walked into the room together. Immediately Happy flew onto the bed, where Evelyn was sleep. Without a second thought, he curled up next to her cheek and went to sleep. Lucy sighed, at least someone was peacefully asleep. She softly knocked on the bathroom door.   
***************************************  
Natsu?” When there was no reply, Lucy braced herself for what she was going to see. She pushed the door open and saw Natsu, as she expected, hunched over on the floor, a razor blade in one hand, and thin rivers of blood running down his wrists. “Natsu?” This time she shook him gently. Lucy noted that his shirt was thrown across the room and she flushed.   
“We got her back,” he murmured. “So why do I still feel so pathetic?” Without thinking he dug the blade deeper into his skin causing more blood to well up and spill over his skin and drip onto the floor.   
“Natsu put the razor blade down,” Lucy said. Gently she covered his hand with hers and pulled it away from his wrist. Without a word she ran a washcloth under the sink with warm water. Natsu winced when she pressed the washcloth to his wrists. “Come on, let’s go to bed. You can sleep with me tonight.” They walked in silence to Lucy’s room, their hands still intertwined.   
“Why are you still punishing yourself for this?” Lucy asked when they were under the blankets. “We have her back. You won’t let anyone take her ever again. You will keep her safe.”   
***************************************  
“Then why do I not believe it?” Lucy didn’t have an answer.   
“Just believe in yourself the way we believe in you.” He looked back at her and she felt a pang go through her heart. Those dark eyes that should be playful and happy were clouded with pain.   
“Do you believe in me?”   
“Yes, I do.”  
 


End file.
